Six Candles
by Warden-Sigma
Summary: Lincoln, Lori, Leni, and Lisa awake in a strange area, dressed in unusual armour and clothing, and near a dull campfire with six blue candles around them.
1. Chapter 1: The Gate

Lincoln snapped his eyes open. It was pitch black all around him, despite it being a moonlit night just before.

Immediately, he could tell that something heavy and sturdy covered his body, something heavier than the blankets he was certain were covering him only a little while earlier. He wearily raised his hand to his face, surprised to see a padded glove raise up in return, and some metal plating, laced together with leather straps, on the rest of his arm.

With a degree of trepidation he pulled himself up, the weight on his outfit shifting down with gravity. At a glance, he could tell he was wearing some kind of medieval armour. Metal vambraces were mostly obscured by the gloves he was wearing, as was the breastplate, hidden behind an orange tabard. His legs and upper arms also had plate armour, reflecting a dull orange light. On his left hip, in a scabbard anchored to his belt, was an unremarkable sword of some kind. Lying next to him was a heater shield with a similar pattern to his tabard, but purple instead of orange.

"What the…?" he spent a moment studying his armour before deciding to work out where the hell he was. Nothing but utter darkness surrounded him, except for the light from a very large campfire, its eerily dull light covering a large area. Six pinpricks of fire dotted around the campfire, held in place by six deep-blue candles. Lying around the campfire were a few other figures, one with blonde hair clad in brilliant gold armour, another blonde in a mint-green uniform of some kind, and the last, smallest one, in what looked like some kind of white coat and unkempt brown hair.

He scooped up the shield and approached the one in gold armour first, and it didn't take him long to recognise her as her eldest sister, Lori. He rolled her onto her back gently, which stirred her awake. "Mrr…" She wearily opened her eyes. "L-Lincoln…?" Her eyes immediately widened. "What are you doing in my room?!"

"Woah, hold on, Lori!" Lincoln backpedaled. "I don't know where the heck we are."

"What?" Lori sat upright and started looking around, her anger melting away into confusion. "What…? Where…?" She turned to Lincoln and looked him over. "Why… are you… wearing that...?"

"I… could ask you the same, miss Ornstein."

Lori blinked, then cast a look over herself. Her golden armour was a far more stylised design than Lincoln's, with a small blue cloth between a set of tassets instead of a tabard. Lying to her side was an equally stylised glaive forged from a similarly gold metal. She pulled herself up, taking a moment to stabilise herself. "Lincoln, what the heck is going on?"

He shrugged. "Hey, I know as much as you do." He approached the mint-green uniformed figure, quickly noticing it was Leni.

"This has to be some kind of dream." Lori followed up behind him. "A… very real-feeling dream."

Lincoln gently nudged Leni, who started to wake. "Five more minutes…"

The last figure, quickly seen to be Lisa in a futuristic-looking white coat worn over a green bodysuit, stirred awake on her own. After an initial stumble, she quickly righted herself and approached the three of them. "Greetings, siblings."

"Lisa, do you have any idea what's going on?" Lincoln asked, nudging Leni again.

"That's a negative." she replied. "I am experiencing complete consciousness and you are acting within your usual parameters, meaning that you are not constructs of my imagination, ergo, I can deduce that this is not a lucid dream, or if it is we're somehow sharing this experience."

"Dang it." Lori sighed. "So, how do we get out of here? Pinch ourselves? Jump off something?"

"If we were indeed lucid dreaming, neither of those would be effective. If we are not, then the latter would cause us to perish. Not… that there appears to be any elevated position here."

Lori groaned. "Well, might as well wake Leni up while we're at it." She knelt down next to Leni and gently shook her. "Leni, wake up."

Leni finally stirred awake, sitting up and stretching. "Wow, that was, like, the best sleep I've had in ages." She paused. "What…? This isn't our room. Or the mall." She looked down at her uniform, a futuristic military uniform with a skirt and white headband. "Ooh, this is a cute outfit."

Lori snapped her fingers, muffled by the gauntlets in her hand, in front of Leni. "Focus. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Well… I was, like, heading to bed early cuz of my morning class, then I was having this dream about going to the mall but it was totes bigger than normal. Then there was this bright light on one of the doors, I think it was a candle shop, so I walked towards it, and then I woke up here."

"Huh. Candle shop." Lincoln mused, glancing at the short candles.

"So why are you guys in costume anyway?" She gasped excitedly. "Is it Halloween?!"

"Er… no. This is actual armour."

Leni placed a hand on Lori's armour. "Wow." The looked around, studying the black void. "So where are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Lincoln shrugged. "But it looks like some kind of campfire surrounded by… well, nothing."

Lisa hummed to herself, and proceeded to walk directly away from them and the campfire.

"Lisa, where are you going?"

"I'm investigating our surroundings. I'll be careful, do not fret."

"Dang it, Lisa." Lincoln muttered under his breath. He noticed thin, faintly glowing lines were connecting the candles together, forming a six-pointed star within a hexagon, though most of it was hidden under the campfire. No wax had melted around the candles despite being lit for what could possibly be ages.

Lisa emerged from the same direction she had disappeared from. "Fascinating. This room appears to send anyone walking too far directly back towards the centre. If I had my notebook…"

"Well, what do we do now?" Lori asked.

Lincoln started to pace. "We could try going back to sleep."

"Really? You literally think doing the same thing we did to end up here would work?" Lori crossed her arms.

Lincoln turned to her on his heel. "If you have any better ideas, please, share it with us, Lori."

Lori went to reply, but faltered, her eyes drifting to behind him. "I…"

Lincoln noticed a bright light slowly build up behind him. He turned sharply, and spotted a massive, archway-shaped mass of light, standing nearly four times his height. A faint, cool breeze wafted by, causing the flames to flicker slightly. A low, quiet tone started echoing through the room, gradually building in volume and pitch.

"What the heck…?"

Lisa walked to the other side of it. "There's only a solid black surface on this side." She pushed onto the black surface, making sure it was indeed solid, then wrapped her hand around and put it through the glowing side, noting the lack of it appearing on the other side. "It's some kind of gateway."

"Should we go through it?" Lincoln asked.

"What choice do we have?" Lori replied.

Leni grabbed Lori's hand. "Lori, please, don't let go."

"I won't." She tightened her grip on Leni. With caution, the two approached the gate, Lori watching her leg go through an immensely thick fog. She turned to Lincoln, and offered her hand. "If we go, we go together!" She said, almost inaudible over the now-deafening noise.

Lincoln approached her, and gave her his hand. Turning around, he offered his other hand to Lisa, who grabbed it. Taking a deep breath, the four of them stepped through, and Lincoln found himself in a plain white void, with no noise.

And, as his hand slipped out of Lori's, no sister. He turned to see where Lori was. Nothing.

Then gravity stopped. He felt himself falling down, but not hitting anything, instead tumbling in empty space.

With a flash of a dark shape crossing his eyes, he suddenly felt gravity reassert itself, catching a glimpse of a bright sunny day before he ended up face-first in grass with a dull thud.

"Ugh…" He groaned, pulling himself upright and spitting out a wad of dirt. To his left, a large forest lay, so thick he reckoned he would barely fit through it. To his right, a bunch of floating islands suspended above an endless sea of clouds, gently bobbing but never drifting away or towards each other. Ahead of him, an ever greater mass of floating islands, including a castle on one of them, all of them connected by a series of bridges.

And behind him, nothing except clouds. Instinct kicked in and he leaped directly away from the ledge he was standing on, unceremoniously landing on his behind.

"Jeez, that was close…"


	2. Chapter 2: The Islands

"Of course this wasn't gonna be simple." Lincoln groaned, dragging his hand across his face. He opened his eyes just in time to notice a couple of columns of light suddenly appear in the distance for a few seconds before dissipating. The closest one was on an island somewhere to his right. Grabbing the shield lying beside him, he begrudgingly marched along. Most of the bridges he crossed on his trek were massive and surprisingly sturdy despite being rope suspension and the weathering on it, and a lot of the islands had barely anything on them except grass.

Eventually, he made it to one of the largest one, one side surrounded with a massive cliff. A series of rock stones lead upwards from a small shack pressed up against it. Lincoln noticed a couple of figures, dressed in rags and looking fairly starved, standing near the shack, aimlessly wandering.

"Hello?" He called out. "Hey, have you guys seen my sisters?"

They turned around to face him. One of then slowly approached. Something didn't look right.

"Two of them are about this high." Undaunted, he continued, raising his hand above his head. "One looks kinda angry and the other looks a bit dumb."

The figure kept approaching, shambling forwards. He looked really starved.

"One's about this high-" He lowered his hand to his hips. "- and looks like a bit of a nerd."

The figure sped up, groaning loudly.

"Whoa, hold on, if I'm trespassing I can just-"

The figure, a bald husk of a man, bounded forwards with unnatural energy. Lincoln raised his shield in time to stop him from striking him, the rusted dagger it was holding bounced off it. It snarled, the pale white of its teeth making the black and empty sockets of its eyes even more striking, pinpricks of white light glaring back at him.

"Get a grip on yourself!" Lincoln shoved it back, staggering it. The thing snarled again, and lunged. Lincoln leapt to the side, and it stumbled past him and over the edge of the island. Before Lincoln could recover the other figure, more feminine than the other, came out of nowhere and pinned him down, clawing at him. He pushed it away and drew his sword, and without pause thrust it through its chest as it reeled from the shove. It let out a raspy, pained breath before falling limp, a faint trickle of black fluid coming from the wound.

Breathing hard, Lincoln pulled the sword from the being. "Jeez…"

Stowing his remarkably clean sword, he continued on to the only other path, the stone stepways next to the hut. Once up the cliff face, he took a few moments to catch his breath before he moved onto the small stone-walled town on an anchored island ahead of him.

Mercifully the massive wooden gates were open, and the streets empty. It wasn't silent, however, as the sounds of combat rung out through the narrow streets. Lincoln, fearing the worst, bolted forwards as quickly as his armour would carry him, and followed the sounds. A clawed arm from somewhere swung out from an open window, but he managed to roll out of the way and continue forwards, the sound of wood and stone splintering behind him as whatever he had avoided clearly didn't like that he did.

Daring not to look behind him, he soon found himself in an open area, filled with the bodies of minotaur-like creatures and a few carts. A flash of gold caught his eye, and watched a living minotaur be felled by a golden arc, a stylised glaive swung by his sister.

Lincoln saw another creature rushing from a shadowy corner towards her back. He sprung forwards, shield held out. "Lori, behind you!"

Lori turned, almost too slowly for Lincoln's adrenaline-fueled mind. He managed to get behind her just in time to raise his shield and halt a swung claw, pushing him a few inches back from the force and carving great gashes into his shield. He drew his sword and thrust it into the creature, causing it to recoil and fall backwards, and Lori finished it off with an elegant swing. With a remarkable flourish she spun it around and thrust it inches from his head, and Lincoln heard another deep death roar from another creature uncomfortably close behind him.

"Behind you." Lori said with a sly smile and exhaustion.

Lincoln smiled in reply, stepping away from her glaive as she drew it back, and spending a moment to check if the coast was clear - which it was. "Good swinging, Lori. Didn't know you could fight like that."

Lori hefted her glaive onto her shoulder and placed her other hand on her hips. "I'm literally one of the best golfers in Royal Woods. It's not too different if you know what you're doing. You're not too bad yourself, twerp."

"Lots of video games."

"That makes it even more impressive."

"Thanks." Lincoln smiled, before realising the subtle burn behind her words. "Hey!"

Lori smirked. "Just teasing." She looked around the area, five or so creatures lying around them. "So what do you think is going on here?"

"Either we're in some kind of twisted and somewhat lazy Soulsborne VR clone thing, or something much worse." Lincoln paused, noticing a slight red line making its way down her cheek. He mirrored where the blood was streaking with his finger. "Uh, you're bleeding."

Lori paused, then rubbed her mailed hand across the spot, noting the red on it. "Huh. Must've been a splinter or something." After a moment, the blood on her hand turned into a glowing white and coalesced into minute floating white cubes that slowly disappeared. "That's literally not normal."

"We should find Leni and Lisa." Lincoln sheathed his sword.

Lori pointed towards a distant island, closer to the large castle. "I saw some beams of light over that way. Do you think that has something to do with them?"

"Definitely." Lincoln replied. "There was one where you are now, and you're here. I must've turned up first."

Lori sighed. "Let's go."

It had taken a lot longer than they'd had liked, and a few more narrow but successfully defeated encounters, but they finally reached what they thought was the right island. It was the largest one so far without any buildings on it, and was covered in red flowers that swayed gently in the breeze.

That made it remarkably easy to find Leni, who was standing up to her ankles in them, alongside the smaller figure of Lisa, their mint and white uniforms easily visible amongst the flowers. Leni spotted them mere seconds after they spotted her, and grabbed Lisa by the wrist and sprinted up to them.

"Lori!"

Lori smiled and wrapped Leni into a hug.

"What the heck's going on?" Leni asked.

"I have literally no idea." Lori replied, still exhausted.

"I, too, have no working hypothesis." Lisa replied, pushing up her glasses. "All I know is that Leni and I are fortunate that we appear to be equipped with technologically advanced directed energy weapons, rather than the primitive feudal-age weapons you two are armed with."

"Lucky." Lincoln muttered.

"Don't consider yourself too disadvantaged. By my count, my thermal beam weapon-" Lisa pulled out a weapon, a gold-plated sci-fi looking pistol of some kind. "- is running low on required power cells, and Leni's own beam weapon, despite not requiring any kind of battery by some technology I have yet to understand, refuses to work for me, as it's most likely hardwired to her genetic code."

"Why would that be a disadvantage?" Lincoln asked, but was elbowed by Lori. "Oh."

Lori looked around the field, a concerned expression slowly forming. "I… I don't like this."

"Why?" Leni asked.

"I don't play many video games, but I've played quite a few, and if there's one thing about a large, open area, is that-"

A low rumbling started, not enough to knock them off their feet, but it was unmissable.

"... This is where bosses usually happen."

A few yards away, the ground erupted, and a large, dirt-sodden creature emerged. Its eyes glowed with a red, hostile intent, and it's arms were easily as thick as Lincoln and pure muscle. Its hands ended in large, bladed fingers, a few rusted slabs of armour covering its thick hide. Its back was covered in worn spears and javelins.

"Dang it." Lincoln muttered.

Leni shrieked, and pulled out her weapon, taking a moment to get the right end pointed at the creature rather than her. Unfortunately, that moment was long enough for the creature to pull a spear from its back and hurl it forwards, and Leni managed to get a single blue beam of light out, which didn't do nearly enough to it, before the spear rammed right through her chest, a slight spurt of red hailing the blade exiting her back.

"Leni!" Lori shrieked, dropping her glaive and running up to Leni, holding her as her legs buckled. Lincoln's heart skipped a beat, the sight of her sister run through with a spear being one he never thought he'd have to see.

Leni coughed up some blood and turned to Lori with a look of fear. "L-Lori…"

"You… You'll be fine…!" Lori tried to encourage Leni, but Leni's life slipped from her before she could finish. Her body quickly turned to white light before it dissolved, the mass falling through Lori's arms and eventually disappearing.

Lori looked down at her arms with a look of terror, watching the faint cubes of light float away before vanishing. Her terrified look quickly became one of pure burning rage.

"You…" She grabbed her glaive. "You bastard!" Screaming, Lori ran forwards with all her might.

"Lori, wait!"

Lori didn't wait. And neither did the monster, who swung his arm straight at her, the clawed fingertips piercing her body with spurts of red and the weight of his arm causing her body to buckle and be flung to the side. She managed a single bounce off the ground before her body too turned into white light, scattering with her momentum.

Lincoln let out a gasp. He still couldn't believe what he had seen. Neither did Lisa, as she barely reacted when the creature ran straight for her and swung its arms down. Lisa managed to narrowly avoid one arm but she disappeared in a hail of dirt and red gore when the other one hit her, its arm raising up with a trail of white light-dust and falling dirt.

Lincoln's first emotion to hit him was anger. Pulling up his shield and raising his sword, he approached the creature, which slowly turned to face him. "Hey, asshole!"

The creature showed no reaction, except to approach him slowly.

Lincoln banged his shield with his sword. "Come and get me!"

It did. With remarkable speed it lunged forwards, and Lincoln barely managed to dodge. As he did, he swung his sword out towards it. It barely did anything, even with it's solid hit.

"Dang it."

He felt his body being crushed by the creature's hands mere moments after.

But not for long, as it seemed to push him away before letting go. His adrenaline skyrocketed as he lost his footing and felt gravity overtake him… but no impact on the ground. He watched the island fly away from him as he plummeted, everything slowly fading to white.

Then suddenly it went black, and he hit solid ground with enough force to wind him.

"Lincoln…?"

Lincoln turned his head sideways, to the source of the voice.

It was Leni.


	3. Chapter 3: The Sea

Lincoln blinked.

He could barely believe his eyes when he saw Leni impaled with a spear barely a minute ago. Now, the blonde woman, wearing her formal sci-fi-looking military uniform a little looser, was staring back at him, tears streaming down her face.

"... Leni?" Lincoln pulled himself up, which took a lot more effort than he expected, even considering the weight of his armour. Lori, her golden armour a touch less shiny, helped him stand upright.

"You okay, Lincoln?" Lori asked, concern strong in her voice.

"I'm okay." He really wasn't.

"I assume the large fantastical creature managed to get you too?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah… Pushed me off the edge."

"Better than what happened to us." Lori muttered.

"It was really scary." Leni wrapped her arms herself a little. "I felt myself just… stop, then I saw whiteness, and then I found myself here. I felt so alone… until Lori got here a few minutes after me."

"Apparently this place runs a bit different with it's time." Lori added. "I'm... " She sighed deeply. "I'm just glad we're all alive."

"Me too." Lincoln replied. He turned to face the infinite blackness above him. "Hey, dirtbag! You call that a fair fight?! I've fought raid bosses easier than that!"

"Uh, siblings?" Lisa elbowed Lincoln. "You may wish to draw your attention here."

Lincoln paused his tirade and looked down. Lisa pointed to one of the six candles. It's light was extinguished, and the wax had become a solidified puddle around the base of what little remained.

"... that's literally not good." Lori murmured.

Leni poked it. "What do you think this means?"

"Can't be anything good." Lincoln replied.

"Or," Lisa started. "It could be."

"What?"

"This is just a hypothesis, but this shows that, in some way, our actions are having an affect on this strange environment. Sure, this candle being extinguished upon our collective deaths likely isn't a good event, but-" Lisa's glasses started to reflect a bright white glow, the fog gate opening up again. "-I theorise that if we were to survive long enough or complete some kind of objective, we might garner a positive outcome."

"English, Lisa." Lori frowned. "We've got Leni with us."

"Hey!"

"Fine." Lisa adjusted her glasses. "It's like a video game. We beat the quest, we might get out of here."

"Okay." Leni nodded, barely audible over the growing noise.

"Guys, we should go." Lincoln gestured to the gate.

Lori nodded, scooping up her glaive and walking to the gate. The others lined up alongside her, and after a quick glance at each other, took a step into the white fog.

Lincoln soon felt the feeling of weightlessness he had earlier, but he kept himself as still as possible. It payed off, as when he materialised he found himself ankle-deep in water, rather than face-first into it.

Mere moments later, he was surrounded by three pillars of bright light, and his siblings appeared in various states of steadiness. Lori was crouched, Lisa as upright as a 7-year-old could be, and Leni fell face-first into the water. Lori uprighted herself and helped Leni stand.

Lincoln took a moment to study his surroundings. An endless expanse of water, with the same, or at least similar, floating islands they were on before above them. A few small mounds of dirt and grass poked up from the water, and the entire area was dotted with the broken remains of strange, detailed, angular structures, something out of a sci-fi or strange techno-fantasy thing. The sky was overcast, with a few beams of light poking through.

He groaned. "Great. Now what?"

Lisa pointed with her arm to the closest structure, a few minutes of walking away. "There's some kind of pulsing light. Should we investigate?"

"Let's do it." Lori started slogging through the water. The others followed shortly behind.

"Ugh, I've got water in my shoes." Leni moaned.

"We all do, Leni." Lincoln replied, now painfully aware of his sodden boots.

Mercifully the four of them reached the structure, climbing inside a hole eaten into the hull. Years of gaming knowledge told Lincoln they were in some kind of ship, used to soar through the sky or through the stars. Lisa tapped on an object mounted into the wall, the blinking light flashing more rapidly and bringing up a blue holographic display. The display spent a moment loading before a map was brought up, showing the area. Where they were were shown in the centre of the map, and a marker lead to the north-western corner of the screen. A few other vessels, similar in size, were blinking red, and a part of the south-eastern corner of the screen was covered in a red overlay.

Lincoln pointed to the north-west marker. "That could be what we're looking for."

Something on Lisa started beeping, and she pulled an object out of her pocket. A light on it flashed for a moment before it too displayed a hologram, copying the map at a smaller scale.

"Fancy." Leni stated.

"And useful." Lori murmured.

"Indeed, now…" Lisa turned to face the marker on the map, the map turning with her facing rather than being locked like the shipboard map. "It should be in this direction."

"Are you certain it's not pointing us towards literal certain death?"

"No, but I'm confident we can handle whatever obstacle comes our way."

"Like we handled that giant thing earlier?"

"... Touché."

"Whatever, let's go." Lori marched off, the others following moments after.

Jumping out of another hole in the craft, they slogged through the water for a long while, until Lori paused, bending over and breathing heavily.

"You okay?" Lincoln asked, similarly exhausted from the walking.

"I think we should take a break." Lori gestured to a close-by ship. "I reckon we rest up there before we move on."

Another minute of slow walking before they reached the ship. Lori pried open some doors on the exterior of the hull and stepped inside, and sat herself on the hallway they had entered. Lincoln followed close behind her, sitting beside her.

"Man, I could go for a cola." Lincoln panted.

Lisa looked around the immediate area before opening up the map she had copied, a dull blue and red light reflecting off the various metal surfaces in the hallway. Leni leant up against the wall opposite to Lori, not as exhausted as her sister.

Lincoln froze for a second. A quiet, muffled chittering sounded from down the hallway. He turned his head as slowly as he dared, and noticed a couple of red lights down the hall.

The lights blinked.

"G-guys…?" Lincoln elbowed Lori.

"Ugh, this better be good." Lori looked past Lincoln, and froze herself. "Uh oh."

Suddenly, a bright, orange beam of pure heat shot down the hallway from behind them as Lisa pulled her weapon out and fired, striking the red lights. In the brief half-second the beam existed, Lincoln saw the creature, a six-limbed, vaguely insectoid shape. And twenty more, clung to the walls. The hallway was plunged into darkness, except for a slightly smouldering circle that hit the ground. Forty red dots appeared.

"Run!" Lori shouted. Lincoln shot up and bolted right out of the ship, turning around and drawing his shield when he got several yards away. Leni and Lisa were quick out of the gate, followed by Lori, who almost made it out before her ankle was grabbed by a hook-clawed hand. Lincoln rushed forwards and stabbed his sword at the arm, penetrating the chitinous skin and causing the creature to recoil in pain, if the shrill noise it made was any indicator. Lori got herself back on her feet and readied her glaive, just as the creatures shot out of the doorway. Lincoln blocked a few strikes before retaliating in kind, blade driving deep into their bodies and knocking them down. Lori swung great golden and green arcs, felling a couple of the creatures with each swing with spurts of green ichor spattering her armour. Moments later, Leni righted herself and opened fire, thin blue beams cutting through insect flesh with ease and the hull of the ship with considerably less ease. Lisa herself barely acted, only firing a thermal lance at any that threatened to flank or overrun the two fighters up the front.

The combat didn't even last a minute, but by the end of it Lincoln and Lori were covered in green ichor and panting with exhaustion. Lincoln tried to straighten himself, but he doubled over in pain, falling to his knee.

"Lincoln!" Lori leant down, helping him back onto his feet. "God, are you hurt?"

Lincoln tapped his hand at the source of the pain on his side, and found his hand with a touch of blood on it. "I…"

Lisa stepped closer and examined the spot. "Looks like it missed the important organs. It'll hurt, but you'll survive if you don't strain yourself." Her device beeped, and she pulled it up, studying the map. "Speaking of, we might have to get our proverbial and possibly literal behinds moving. I've calculated that the red areas on this map are concentrations of those beings, and there appears to be… an alarmingly large group of them closing in on this area."

Lincoln looked skywards. "You just had to make it harder for us, didn't you?"

"Who are you talking to?" Leni asked.

"I dunno, whoever's doing this to us."

"Less talking, more moving." Lori stated. She and Lincoln started to move in tandem, the speed they were moving at not much slower than when they were moving through the water anyway. Leni and Lisa followed close behind.

Lincoln found himself slowing down. The pain kept hitting him in bursts any time he moved his body in anything but one way, and it was wearing his energy down.

Lori stopped. "Lisa, do you have any first aid equipment on you? Lincoln's in a bad shape."

Lisa shook her head. "We may find something in a nearby vessel."

"Guys, I'm fine." Lincoln said, despite clearly not feeling at all okay. "We have to keep moving."

"Lincoln, you're hurt, and moving around like you are is only going to make it worse."

"I'll carry him." Leni said. "I'm strong enough, and I'm not the best fighter out of us."

"You're also the only one of the two of us who has any weapon remaining." Lisa checked her pistol. "I'm down to three shots."

"If we keep moving we should be fine." Lincoln replied. "Leni, are you sure you're able to carry me?"

"You'd do the same for me if you could." Leni smiled. She grabbed Lincoln and, as gently as she could, hoisted him onto her shoulders. "Oof, you're heavier than I thought."

Lincoln winced in pain. "Y-yeah, that's the armour."

"We're wasting precious moments, siblings." Lisa tapped her wrist.

"Right, let's move." Lori continued onwards, Leni close behind, and with Lisa following. "Lisa, how long until we reach our objective?"

"Uhh… Good news and bad news on that front."

"Good news?"

"We'll be there in five minutes at our current speed."

"And the bad news…?"

"The mass of hostile entities will be upon us in approximately three."

Lori groaned. "We can't win this, can we…? Alright, let's move, double time!"

Leni picked up speed, trying to keep her body as stable as she could. Lincoln kept feeling stabs of pain but he tried to endure it, now that he didn't have to focus on moving.

Leni stopped. "Wait, guys!"

Lori ground to a halt. "Leni, we have to keep moving!"

"Wait! Can you hear that?"

The four of them paused. They could hear… talking. And not just talking. Deep in their cores, they knew who was talking, someone they had spent all their lives with.

"Luan…?" Lincoln mumbled.

"Luan!" Lori yelled out.

Out from behind one of the nearest structures, a ghostly white figure emerged clad in simple robes. And then another, darker than the other and wearing equally dark, gothic armour. Behind them, another figure emerged, dragging a large object.

"Lori?" Luan's voice rang out from the brighter figure.

"Luan, over here!" Lori waved her arms. "Quick!"

The three figures obeyed, slogging through the water as quick as they could. The largest and the brightest of them was Luan, holding some kind of staff. The armoured figure was Lucy, wielding a large mace and a shield. The smallest figure was Lana, wearing patchwork hide clothing and dragging a massive lump of dense wood behind her. All three of them were monochrome and surrounded in a white haze. Lori went up to hug Luan, as did Luan to Lori, but the two of them phased through each other, and Lincoln spotted a lack of water movement with Luan's movements.

"What the…?" Lori looked at her arms, then back at Luan. Luan moved her arm through Lori, moving through her body with no effect.

"Well, I can see someone's trying to keep their spirits high." Luan giggled. "Get it?"

"Sigh." Lucy moaned. "They're a figment of our taxed minds."

"Wait, do I look like a white ghost thingy?" Lori asked.

Luan nodded.

"You look like that to us." Lincoln added.

"Wait, so they're not ghosts or mind tricks?" Lana asked.

"Seems not." Lucy replied. A ever-so-slight smile grew on her face.

Luan looked towards Lincoln. "Oh no. Is Lincoln hurt?"

"Nothing he can't survive." Lisa replied.

"How'd you even get here?" Leni asked.

"Funny story. Well, not funny funny, but you know. The three of us woke up around-"

"A campfire surrounded by six candles?" Lincoln asked.

Luan blinked. "Yeah… Exactly like that."

"Siblings," Lisa interrupted. "I hate to cut this reunion short, but the hostile entities will be upon us in less than a minute if we don't move with two point eight seconds from now."

Lori cursed under her breath. "Come on, we gotta move."

The seven of them started to move with as much haste as they could muster.

"Wait, hostile entities?" Lana asked. "As in bad guys?"

"I didn't know there were any here." Luan added.

"Well, there are, and it's not fun."

Lana ground to a halt, and turned to face behind her. She let out a panicked shriek and her body was knocked to the floor before it and her weapon vanished completely. Lucy halted herself and raised her shield, swinging her mace in wide arcs, bringing spots of white onto her black armour, before she too was knocked down and her image blinking out of existence. The entire group stopped, and Luan turned to face Lori. Before she could say anything, her body split in half horizontally and vanished just as quickly as it happened.

Reluctantly, the remaining ones turned to face behind them. The water rippled with disturbed motion, the horizon behind them filled with hook-claws and hatred. Lisa pulled up her device and noticed the edge of the red mass was not only uncomfortably close, but it seemed to be flickering between what they could see… and the red mass being right on top of them.

Lisa turned to the others, a look of absolute terror on her face. "They're burrowing benea-"

The water behind Lisa exploded, and one of the creatures emerged from the rupture. Its bladed limb swung hard and cleaved her in two, her body turning into two rolling masses of fading white light.

Lori swore loudly, and began running as quick as she could. Leni followed, but she was tripped by another creature that emerged from the ground, sending Lincoln flying. Lincoln recovered quickly enough to see Leni impaled repeatedly, turning to light very soon after.

He tried to move away but found his legs giving in. "Lori!"

Lori kept running.

Lincoln called out for her again, but felt a sharp pain go right through him. And again. And again. By the fourth strike his vision started turning white and blurry as time slowed to a crawl, his body moving as if it was in gelatin. And then, white.

Lincoln awoke moments later with a start, lying down in the same position. He pulled himself up, noticing that the only pain he had left were dull aches where he was wounded. He saw another candle had been extinguished.

Leni was leaning against a log half-sunken into the stone, huddled close to herself. Lisa herself was sitting on another, visibly shaking and clutching her abdomen. The two of them looked up, and immediately stood upright. Leni ran up and wrapped Lincoln into a tight hug, Lisa joining them moments after.

"I-I'm sorry…!" Leni blubbered.

"Woah, it's fine, Leni, you didn't do anything wrong." Lincoln patted her back. "Neither did you, Lisa."

"No, I must partake in a certain degree of fault. Had I checked my scanner sooner…"

"It didn't even pick up those burrowing ones until they got too close anyway." Lincoln knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Plus, we should be blaming whoever's doing this to us."

"Hey, where's Lori…?" Leni asked.

"She was still running when I got brought back here." Lincoln replied. "She didn't even stop to help."

"Lincoln…" Lisa started, but was interrupted by a sudden flash of light, and Lori appearing on her knees. Lori frantically checked her head, breathing a sigh of relief after.

Lincoln cleared his throat. "You feeling good about yourself, Lori?"

Lori turned around. "W-what?"

"Lincoln, I know what you're about to say, and I'd advise-" Lisa started, but Lincoln placed a finger in front of her face.

"You just ran off and let us get knocked back here!" Lincoln yelled. "What gives?"

"I said to run." Lori crossed her arms, standing as tall as she could.

"I couldn't run, Lori! The least you could've done was try to help me."

"There was no way I could have, Lincoln!" Lori yelled back. "And in case you were wondering, I had no idea where I was running to anyway so it's not like I could've made it."

"But-!"

"I watched six of my siblings get torn apart and killed!" Lori started panting, expression becoming more distressed. "One of them, twice!"

"Lori…"

"So can you forgive me, Lincoln, for just running? I-I had no idea what to do, so I just ran! I ran, so I could get out of this hellish existence for even just a moment…!" She fell to her knees, palms slamming into the ground. "I don't want to be somewhere where I watch my family die over and over… I-I just…"

Lincoln knelt down in front of her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Woah woah woah, hey, sorry, I… I got a bit heated. And don't worry, I'll make sure we'll get home soon."

With perfect timing, the gate reopened, the same dull tone rising as before.

"So what's your plan, Lincoln?" Lisa asked.

Lincoln helped Lori back onto her feet, then turned to Lisa. "Well… we'll have to make it up as we go."

Lisa sighed. "Considering the wildly different scenarios we seem to be placed in… That's probably all we can do."

Lincoln walked up to the gate, waiting for the others to form up next to him, and stepped through the fog and into the white expanse.


	4. Chapter 4: The Fleet

This time, Lincoln found himself slouched against something. He noticed the hallway he was in was mainly brass or gold, a vaguely futuristic style of glowing pipes and sections mixed with welded and riveted older aesthetics. A low hum and the sound of air battering the hull rang out and rumbled the ship in a very subtle way

He pulled himself up, his body a little more weary than when he started. His armour was chipped and dull, and his tabard somewhat tattered. "Getting real tired of this…" He approached a window, circular and thick, and peered out. It was a beautiful sunny day, high above an endless ocean and around cloud level.

He scanned his surroundings more closely, and spotted a sign labelled 'Bridge' pointing him toward what was now his left. He followed it and its subsequent duplicates, turning down a few corridors and climbing a few flights of stairs before reaching a massive doorway several storeys higher. On it, the name 'Ronalda' was painted in a futuristic-looking font with vine patterns either side. Whatever vessel marking was so heavily worn away that it was unrecognisable, the only worn part on the otherwise nigh-pristine hullwork.

"Ronalda…?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow, running his hand along the name. "Isn't that Ronnie Anne's name?"

His eyes wandered to a small console marked with a few buttons and a handprint. He placed his hand on it, a beam of blue light passing over it before it flashed red.

 _ **BZZZT**_

Lincoln frowned, then tried again.

 _ **BZZZT**_

"Dang it."

He paused, then looked at his hand. He was still wearing thick gloves. Mentally slapping himself, he removed the glove off his hand and pressed it to the console, which scanned it and flashed green instead.

 _ **DING**_

The door practically slammed itself open, sliding apart quickly and with immense noise and ferocity. He quickly stepped through, and scanned his new surroundings.

In a rough U-shape at the edges of the room and slightly dipped, a series of small computers with hunched figures were dotted evenly across them. Another level, at the same level, was another series of computers, a few of which were empty. On a raised platform at the centre of the room, a large wheel and a few other controls were set, a gold-armoured figure hunched over them.

"Agh…!" The figure yelled, slamming her hand futilely into the console. "Work, you bastard!" It was clearly Lori.

Lincoln went to speak, but a warning siren went off for a second before the door slammed shut behind him. Lori yelped and spun around, grabbing her glaive and winding it back to strike.

She quickly relaxed. "Oh, it's just you."

"Hey Lori." Lincoln waved, approaching her at the helm. "Having trouble?"

"Well, this stupid thing literally won't work." She gestured to the console.

"Can I try?" He asked.

Lori shrugged and stepped aside. "Sure. But I doubt it'll-"

As Lincoln took her place and placed his ungloved hand on the wheel, the groove carved into it glowed blue, and the idle consoles lit up.

"... work." Lori huffed and crossed her arms. "Of course it'd work for _you._ "

Lincoln spent a moment removing his other glove before looking at the full controls. To his right, a lever sat, 'throttle' marked on it. On his left a blue-coloured holographic monitor embedded in a brass casing rested, bolted into the deck. What looked like a microphone was bolted into it, folded back, and next to that a small device rested. He pulled the microphone towards himself and tapped on it. "You think this works?"

Lori studied the screen and tapped a few things on the metal keypad below it. "It should now."

Lincoln pulled the microphone to his mouth. "Hello, can anyone hear me?"

No reply. Lincoln turned to the console. Only one commline seemed to be working, the only other option, and the one he was on, being a one-way open line. He switched to the other one.

"Hey, is anyone there?"

Static for a moment, then a reply. "Greetings, this is Lisa."

Lincoln sighed in relief. "Lisa, it's Lincoln. Where are you?"

"Leni and I have made our way to what is marked as Engineering. A lot of its systems appear to be automated, it just need guidance."

"Lincoln, come look at this." Lori murmured, standing near one of the hunched figures. Lincoln walked to her and looked at the figure. It was vaguely insectoid, with four arms typing away at the keyboard, a strange device strapped to its enlarged head.

"Are these… the things that were chasing us last time?"

"Looks like it." Lori poked it with her finger. It didn't react, staring with half-dead eyes at the screen in front of it. "They seem docile."

Lincoln sighed with relief. "Okay, good. One less thing we have to worry about." He resumed his post, looking out across the horizon. A couple of other vessels, wrought with brass-like hulls and suspended in the air, floated next to them, and ahead of them a series of floating islands with a large castle on the centremost and largest of them.

Lori went to one of the mid level screens. "Looks like we have to attack that castle."

"I have a better idea." Lincoln grabbed the wheel and spun it around. It span with ease, and the vehicle turned slowly.

"Lincoln, what are you doing…?" Lisa asked with concern.

"I'm turning this ship around. We've died when we've tried to do what it wants us to do, now we need to try doing what it doesn't."

"Uh, I wouldn't recommend that."

Lincoln finished his turn, then pushed the throttle forwards. The vessel rumbled to life and lurched forwards, slowly picking up speed. "Come on…!"

The ship continued on for a solid minute, going faster by the second. Small coils of black and white energy started brushing against the glass and the hull, growing more visible and frequent until it, and the ship's controls, stopped suddenly, the controls locking into its idle position as the ship slowed down rapidly. Moments of nothing passed, and as Lincoln went to put his hand on the throttle, his whole world lurched suddenly as he was thrown into the helm railing and just as suddenly thrown into the other side of it. Lori fared no better, tumbling as she was thrown off her feet and into empty crew stations.

Lincoln staggered upright, a whole series of warning sirens blaring. "Lori, are you okay?"

"I'm okay!" She called out. "I think one of my ribs is cracked but that's about it."

Lincoln grabbed the mic. "You guys alright?"

Silence.

"Hello?" More silence. He grew worried. "Lisa?"

"Lisa…" Leni's voice replied back, shaky and distraught even through the speakers. "Lisa's dead…"

Lincoln slammed his fist against the wheel. "Damnit!"

"I-I tried to save her, but she flew too fast a-and…!" She began sobbing.

"Woah, hold on, Leni, don't beat yourself up about it." Lincoln sighed. "It's not your fault, it's mine."

"No, it's whoever's putting us through this' fault!" Lori shouted, walking up to the helm, clutching her abdomen. "But, now we know not to run away."

"So I guess we charge." Lincoln said. "Leni, if you can, make your way to the bridge."

"I-I'll try."

Lincoln grabbed the wheel to turn them around, but paused, as he noticed they were already pointed back at the sky castle. Instead he gently pushed the throttle forwards, and steered the ship so that was aiming towards it properly. The previous ships quickly came into view and began moving alongside them.

After passing by (and scraping against) one of the numerous floating islands, the vessel drifted into an open spot, a corridor of air flanked with stone towers suspended on islands, all leading to the very front of the castle.

"I'm gonna gun it. Lori, if you've got any kind of weapon control, now would be the time to use it."

Lori nodded and turned back to the console. Lincoln shoved the throttle forwards with a hearty clunk. The moment he did, however, lights began rapidly flaring from the towers, and a hail of glowing bolts streamed across, and into, their hull. Lori pressed a button, and the whole ship shuddered as it unleashed a barrage of blue lights into several of the towers. Small iron-coloured craft began swarming the skies, and from the top of the ship turrets swivelled and began opening up with lances of light, striking down as many as they could. Next to them, one of their sister vessels rippled with explosions, drifting down ever-so-slightly before it was engulfed in light, its pieces falling to the sea below.

"Damnit, can't this go any faster?" Lincoln shouted, repeatedly slamming the throttle forwards.

"The engines are literally in bad shape." Lori replied. "We're gonna be toast if we keep this up."

Just as suddenly as it started, the hail of fire and swarms of attack craft abated. Any joviality, not that there was any, was short-lived, however, as a strange gyroscope-like device emerged from the front of the castle, a vicious hot energy housed in the iron and stone device. The gyroscopic device rearranged itself into a series of rings, the energy building up before it shot out and lanced through their other sister ship, which erupted in brilliant light. The gyroscope began spinning again, its spent energy now rebuilding, and the attack continued.

"We need to get out of here!" Lori shouted, pulling herself out of the chair. Lincoln grabbed the device next to the microphone and stepped back from the console just as one of the iron fighter craft crashed right through the canopy, showering the two in glass. Vaguely resembling a bird but much, much more angular and mechanical, it thrashed violently, tearing the enslaved crew into pulp and screeched with the same red energy as the castle's gyroscopic weapon.

Lincoln slammed his palm into the console on the door and opened the door. He bolted through, and Lori staggered after him.

Then the warning sign went off, and the door slammed shut with a sickening crunch and Lori's screams. Lori dropped her glaive to try and pull her leg, now trapped in the doorway, out from its grip, but she pulled it in just the wrong way and the door finished closing, cutting her leg off just below the knee. She howled in agony, clutching at it and screwing her eyes shut.

"Oh jeez!" Lincoln shouted, rushing forwards and loosening his belt to tie around her leg, something Luan had taught him for first aid. He was glad their blood vanished into white light, otherwise the floor would've been slick with it.

Lori winced as he tightened the belt around her stump. "Agh, fuck…!"

"Y-you're gonna be fine." Lincoln lied to himself. Lori was quite pale now, but at least the bleeding had slowed down to a crawl. He pulled out the thing he had yanked from the console, a radio-like device. He clicked it on. "Hello?"

"Lincoln?" Leni asked with panic, after a second.

"Lori's hurt. Where are you?"

"I'm still here." A low hum started building behind her. "Uh, the big spinny thing is broken, though, and it looks like it's gonna break even more…!"

"Leni, get out of there!" Lincoln shouted. Leni's only reply was a terrified shriek, a deafening noise, and silence. Around them everything started heating up, no doubt the reaction of the engine rupturing.

Lori grabbed Lincoln and pulled him close, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight. Lincoln did the same, holding her close just as he felt the searing heat of the cataclysmic explosion hit them with searing agony.

When the bright glow and pain finally stopped, he opened his eyes. He and Lori were still embracing, and were next to the bonfire. Another candle had gone out.

"What happened in there?" Lisa asked, her uniform looking a little more scuffed and stained than before. "I've been waiting here for half-an-hour after I…" she rubbed her neck. "... suffered acute trauma to my spine."

"It… didn't go so well." Lincoln replied. He looked around. Leni was huddled against one of the logs, head in her knees, her own uniform slightly tattered and frayed. Lori was still clinging onto him, shivering like mad. He had to admit, he didn't feel much better.

After a long while, Lori finally settled down, releasing her grip on him. She still looked like she would break down at any moment, but she was functioning. She rubbed her leg. "Well, now I know what it feels like to lose my leg, hah hah…" She looked up at Lincoln, and smiled. "Thanks for trying to help, Lincoln."

"You would've done the same for me."

"Or run around like a headless chicken."

The two shared a short laugh at that. Lori moved to comfort Leni, who was still quite badly shaken. Lincoln, meanwhile, approached Lisa. "How are you holding up?"

"My mental fortitude is more or less intact and I don't have any lasting injuries, so I would say fairly well." Lisa replied. "And you?" She asked after a moment.

"I'm…" Angry. Frustrated. In despair. "doing alright."

Lisa studied him for a moment before shrugging.

A noise began echoing out through the emptiness - a different noise to the Gate, something that sounded like static rather than a rising tone. Lincoln spun around to the source - a flickering greyscale figure with long black hair, her legs crossed and arms posed by her side. She appeared to be straining despite remaining seated, and was wearing a black set of underarmour. A few subtle, distorted whispers surrounded the figure, who looked towards Lincoln.

"Lucy?" Lincoln approached the ghostly figure.

"L-Lincoln…" Lucy smiled, still struggling, her voice crackling as a bad radio signal would. "I'm glad I found you…"

"What are…? How…?" Lisa tried to ask, clearly not understanding what was going on.

Lucy winced as her image flickered. "I don't have much… energy left to do this. This thing…. controlling the games… it knows us. It knows our weaknesses… It-" she cried out in pain, her image becoming a blur for a moment. "It knows I'm connecting us, and it doesn't want me to."

"What is this thing?" Lori demanded.

"I don't know… But it controls these worlds. And it has a keen interest in you, Lincoln."

Lincoln went pale. "W-what?"

Lucy doubled over in pain, but this time her image kept stable. "I have to go. Stay strong, watch yourselves." She looked up at the gathered crowd, her hair parted just enough to show her eye, a trail of stained tears leading down her cheek. "I love you guys-"

Her image vanished into fading dust as a bright light lit behind them, another gate opening. Lincoln stood tall and turned to it. Then, with a scowl, he drew his weapons, somewhat worn like his armour, and stormed forwards, sprinting as fast as he could.

"Lincoln!" Lori called out, but Lincoln stayed his course, leaping headlong into the misty gate and into the white void once again.


	5. Chapter 5: The Castle

The first thing Lincoln saw when he was pulled out of the light was a stone pillar. He managed to get a much closer look at the elegant stonework as he slammed right into it.

It was times like this he wished he had a helmet.

As he staggered back, checking his nose for any breakage, his sisters emerges from their own beams of light. Leni ran right into the pillar he had just ran into with a hearty thud, and fell unceremoniously onto her back. "Owwie… Oh hey Lincoln!"

"Hey Leni." He replied as he pulled her up to her feet.

"So, some kind of castle-cathedral thing this time…" Lori mused, wandering around. Lincoln did much the same - they were all standing in a massive stone hall, lined with abstract stained glass windows but lacking any other furnishing except a large red carpet and a simplistic gold throne of some kind. Two things in particular drew their attention - first and foremost, the giant spinning gyroscopic thing suspended on the roof, housing a fierce blue energy, and made of a strange mix of iron and stone. The second thing was the stained glass window behind the throne - while the rest of them were an abstract mess of colours with no clear form, this one depicted a clear image of a blonde woman in gold armour, a glaive in her arms and a halo of light behind her head. It easily resembled Lori, if the blue eyeshadow and hair shape was any indication. "Well, l'm glad someone appreciates me here." Lori said with a smirk.

"Aw, I wanna window." Lincoln bemoaned, half-joking.

"You literally had an airship."

"I know, I know, I'm just messing with you."

In the distance, the sound of battle was raging on. Through one of the clearer parts of the window, they could see a fleet of iron sky vessels drifting closer, hails of red fire streaking from their-

"Lori?"

Lincoln and Lori spun around to the source of the voice. A trio of ghostly figures sped up to them. One of them, apparently Luna, was wearing some kind of futuristic armour and was carrying a large vaguely box-like weapon mounted under her arm. Following behind her was Lynn, herself in similar, but lighter, armour, an advanced-looking maul thrumming with energy in her hand. The last one was Lola, in some sort of elegant (and probably pink) bodysuit with a matching skirt and scarf, and holding a high-tech rifle which looked a bit larger than what it actually was like thanks to her smaller size. What surprised Lincoln the most was how well she was holding it, almost like she had some training with it. All of their gear looked like it had seen some use, much like their own.

Luna stopped near them. "Man, I'm glad to see you, dudes."

"Same." Lori replied. "I'd hug you, but, well…"

"So it looks like we're all stuck here." Lynn said, looking around and tapping her foot. "Oh hey, there's a window with Luna on it."

"Wait." Lincoln started, suddenly realising something. "Where's Lily?"

"She isn't with us, you guys, or Team Luan." Lola stated.

"Gosh, I hope she's not alone." Leni murmured.

"She's probably been spared from this." Lisa responded. "Speaking of which, we should move."

"But where?" Lori asked. As if to respond, the roof shuddered and a large chunk of it fell down nearby with a horrible crash and a wave of dust.

"You okay, dudes?" Luna asked.

"Define 'fine'." Lincoln responded with a hint of sarcasm. "The roof's falling apart."

Luna and her team responded to something similar, Luna's hair covered in little flecks of dust.

"Run!" Lincoln yelled, sprinting to the back of the hall. The roof managed to hold together just long enough for them to reach the great wooden doors at the back, which with a combined effort the four of them got open. Luna's solution was far more destructive, as she levelled her weapon at where the door was and pulled the trigger to a deafening noise, then covered her face from a wave of invisible splinters.

"There was an easier way to do that!" Lynn yelled, leaping through the doorway, the rest following her. Just as they had all made it through and into a long hallway, the gyroscope on the roof finally fell down, the impact on the stone floor cracking all its rings, unleashing the trapped energy and engulfing the entire room in searing blue flame. Lori grabbed Leni and dived to the floor, and the other two following her example, as a wave of blue fire washed overhead, the space barely enough to contain it. The moment it stopped Lincoln pulled up to watch Luna and Lola do the same, and Lynn disappear with a shriek. Luna swore loudly and pulled herself back up, staggering into a sprint.

At the end of the hallway, a stairway led down to a level below. The six of them moved down as fast at they dared before stopping to catch their breaths, a large room lined and filled with heavy oak bookcases stretching before them. A hole was burnt through the stone roof, where the gyro thing had crashed and destroyed it, and some of the bookcases were smoldering.

"Why the fffff…" Luna started, then paused, sparing a glance at Lola and Lisa. "Why the heck would a castle have something _in the throne room_ that'd kill everyone if it broke?"

"I…" Lincoln paused. "That's a good question."

"Incoming!" Lori shouted, pulling her glaive back to strike. Lincoln spun around and raised his shield, as a veritable horde of husks of people charged forwards. A few of them were fairly well armoured in dark metal, and strode forwards with purpose, but the rest was much like a shambling horde of zombies in their movements, just faster.

Lisa fired the first shot - a bright orange beam of heat shot uncomfortably close to Lincoln's side, burnt a ragged hole through the foremost husk knight and several of the horde before its energy burnt out. Leni fired next, her blue lance of light going wildly off-target. The wave managed to get closer just as Leni managed a second shot which only narrowly missed, and that's when Lori swung hard, cleaving five of them apart with one swipe. Lincoln stepped forwards and swung his own blade, felling one at a time, trading number of downed opponents for the safety of his shield. As the two of them chewed through the horde, Lisa climbed the stairwell and took another shot at one of the knights, boring a hole through that one as well. Leni's shots finally got on target, each blast striking one down in quick succession.

However, as each one fell, two more took its place. Lincoln had an easier time handling it, thanks to his shield and the horde's complete lack of coordination. Lori, however, was having trouble. Each swing left her wide open, and she was struggling to find some elbow room even after shortening her grip closer to the blade. The last remaining knight moved through the throng of husks, a thermal lance narrowly missing it and lighting up its dessicated, skeletal face. It didn't swing with its sword. It merely shoved Lori backwards and upset her footing. The moment her backside hit the floor, the horde pounced on her.

"Lori!" Lincoln yelled. Her glaive, discarded near his feet, turned glowing white and dissolved. Fuming with hatred, Lincoln doubled his efforts, swinging hard against the horde to make his way to the knight.

Something flew past his head, subtly beeping. He ignored it in favour of continuing to attack, and was about to issue a challenge to the knight when a deafening blue explosion tore through most of the horde, charred limbs scattering everywhere, the blast only a few paces away from hm

"Oops." Leni murmured.

Lincoln smiled, now having to deal with only a few more husks, which were quickly slain in their confusion. Soon enough, only the knight remained, reading his sword to parry. Lincoln charged and sunk his blade deep in its unarmoured chest as it failed to deflect his attack, pushing it deeper and pushing it into one of the bookcases. Whatever mockery of life force it had left its body with a rattling breath, and as it went slack Lincoln yanked the blade out of it, watching the knight fall limp and slide down.

"Leni, I had no idea you had grenades." Lincoln said. He spared a glance to the ghostly figures of Luna and Lola. They were fighting something unseen, but seemed to be handling themselves well enough.

"I just thought it was a weird rock." Leni shrugged. "I thought throwing it at them would get them to stop."

Lincoln studied the mass of charred corpses. "Well, it did."

"I only had the one, though." Leni shrugged.

Lola and Luna stopped their attacks on the invisible horde. Luna turned to them. "Hey, dudes, where's Lori?"

"She didn't make it." Lincoln replied. It was weird how little this was starting to get to him.

"Fuck!" Luna yelled, then looked back at the younger of them. "Er, sorr-"

"You know I don't care, right?" Lola crossed her arms, rifle slung over her shoulder. "It's not like I haven't heard-"

A bright column of light and noise burst through the centre of the room, widening the hole on the roof and boring a new one on the floor, disappearing just as suddenly and leaving only the sound of melting rock and the smell of ashen paper and liquified stone.

"Well." Lincoln stated, mostly to check if his ears were still working. "That happened."

"Yep." Lola replied, looking quite surprised, somewhat covered in ash. "That did."

Lincoln stepped over to the massive hole, or as close as he dared. Downwards, several storeys of the castle lay below, all with the same hole bored into them. Upwards, an iron skyship floated, a familiar gyroscope spinning below it, holding a building mass of red energy. The sky was swarming with gold and black attack craft and a hail of energy bolts of red and blue. Clearly whoever was controlling these worlds had an obvious colour preference.

Lincoln gulped, the gyrolaser drawing his attention again. "We... should get somewhere safe."

"What would be safe…?" Lisa mused to herself. Her eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. "The basement! If there's a basement, then that would be an ideal location."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Luna said, then began to sprint.

"Wait, what are you…?"

"Geronimo!" Luna shouted before leaping down the hole and firing her weapon downwards to the sound of what could only be described as a cataclysm of electric guitars and crunching stone. After a moment of silence, Lincoln heard a solid thump at the bottom level. "I'm okay…!" Luna called out, wearily. "Good news, the sonic blaster slowed me down like I thought it would. Bad news, it didn't slow me down enough and both of my legs are now broken."

"What on Earth made you think that was a good idea?!" Lola shouted down.

"I _didn't_ think… ow."

Lola groaned. "I'm surrounded by idiots." She gestured to the three with her. "Well come on, we're losing daylight here."

"Hardly." Lisa adjusted her glasses. "In the appro-"

"Lisa, I swear, if you say some nerd stuff at me right now I'll strangle you with your own coat." Lola said with scathing cheerfulness.

Lisa stammered, then sighed. "Fine."

Climbing down to the next few levels wasn't hard. A few groups of husks here and there, nothing too difficult. On the third floor, which appeared to be the remains of a floor-wide kitchen, Lincoln spent a moment staring up at the gyroscope on the ship above. It had quite a lot of energy stored up, and was kicking up quite the breeze.

"Hey Luna!" Lola shouted. "We're nearly down there! You still with us?"

"Still here, dudes!" Luna shouted back. "I am in _so much pain_ but I haven't died yet!"

"Small miracles." Lola murmured.

Lincoln froze. He heard a quiet, mechanical and vaguely avian noise. "Wait, did you guys hear that?"

"Hear wha-?" Leni asked, but something loud and piercing shrieked out. From the roof of the level below them, a black mechanical shape rushed into the air, unfurling its wings and hovering in the air, suspended by talon-jets, and staring at Lincoln with fiery, hateful eyes from it's angular face.

"Son of a-!" Lincoln shouted, readying himself. He had no idea how he was gonna stab something made of metal and fire, but he could only try.

"Wait, what's goin-?" Lola started, but was cut short by the sound of metal slicing through flesh, and everything went silent. Lincoln suddenly couldn't feel his legs, and his torso began to spin in the air.

"Lincoln!" Leni called out, time slowing to a crawl. The other two looked mortified, Lola especially.

Lincoln's vision went white. Then black, as his body (and reattached legs) hit smooth stone with a thud. As he struggled to pull himself up, he felt someone else help him.

"I was wondering who'd be first back." Lori's voice, soft and soothing, said.

"Damnit all, we were so close!" Lincoln rested himself against one of the embedded logs. "Then I had to get bisected by one of those metal plane bird things."

Lori winced. "Ouch."

"The others probably won't be far behind." Lincoln rubbed the shoulder he had landed on, soothing its pain. "So, how are you holding up?"

"Better than I was earlier." Lori sighed. "I won't bore you with the details."

"I've got some time."

"N-no, really, you don't want to know." She looked a little worried.

"What else is there to do?"

"I…"

"Come on, I won't j-"

"I tried to kill myself!" Lori yelled back, distressed.

Lincoln went pale. "W-what?"

"I was scared, and alone. I didn't know if you guys were going to come back, or if you managed to win and got out of this hell, and… I-I got desperate. I… tried to run myself through, with my glaive. It just… didn't go through. Like there was a barrier stopping me. I kept trying, tried slicing my neck, spearing my head, but nothing worked." Lori held herself, on the verge of a breakdown. "Throwing myself on the fire didn't work either, it just threw me off it. I-I just… couldn't stand the idea of being alone."

Lincoln had no idea what to say. Instead, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her into a hug. She quickly clung tightly onto him, quietly sobbing.

The two of them stayed like that for a long while, they had no idea how long exactly. After a time, two bright flashes of light hailed the arrival of Lisa and Leni, their uniforms both quite frayed and the two of them looking stunned.

"They _dropped_ the gryo-laser device on us! Who _does_ that?!" Lisa shouted.

"At least it was quick this time." Leni said, sounding exhausted. She took a seat on the one of the logs. "I wish I could take a nap. Maybe that'd make me feel better."

Lincoln paused. He suddenly realised that despite all the effort he had put in, and in the hour or two they had been running around for, he neither felt sleepy, nor hungry, nor thirsty, nor anything of that sort. He just felt sore and somewhat drained. "I just want this to be over."

"That makes ten of us." Lori murmured, pulling herself up. "But, as long as we keep trying, I reckon we'll be alright."

"That's the spirit." Lincoln smiled. As if to time his response, another gate opened.

Leni took a deep breath, sighed, and pulled herself up. "Well, let's go do this again."

"Let's see if we can defeat our previous best." Lisa said, walking through the gate. Leni followed closely behind, slightly hunched.

Lori scooped up her glaive and was about to enter herself, but Lincoln grabbed her wrist. "Hey, Lori?"

Lori turned back to face him, raising an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Are you gonna tell those two what happened here?"

Lori paused, in thought. "No, I think it'd be better if they didn't know. Leni looks like she's had enough bad experiences for one day, I don't want to make it literally worse."

"I get that." Lincoln sighed, his breath shakier than he wanted it to be. "But, I promise you, I'll stick by your side, even if that means tearing apart these worlds."

Lori smiled. She took his hand in hers. "Together?"

Lincoln nodded, and the both of them stepped through the gate once more.


	6. Chapter 6: The Bunker

When Lincoln reappeared, everything was black, cold, and cramped. He reached forwards, only to feel metal, or what he assumed was metal through his gloves and the subtle creaking sound that rang out from his gentle push. He felt much the same to his sides, and behind him some horizontal boards, akin to shelving but lacking anything on them.

He tried pushing forwards against the metal. Nothing except for a brief sliver of dull blue light, as what he guessed was a set of doors barely budged. He tried again, slamming his shoulder into it. And again. "Hey, lemme out of here!" He began banging on the metal, loud hollow thuds ringing out.

After a few moments of banging, the doors split apart, Lisa looking up at him. "Oh, greetings, Lincoln."

"Thanks. I really didn't want to stay trapped in there the whole time." Lincoln stepped out of what he now realised was a storage closet, into a poorly-lit and futuristic-looking room, strips of faint blue lights lining the edges of the roof. A whole bunch of robotic tools were bolted into the roof, blades and syringes built into mechanical arms and each cluster looming over a bed. Most of the beds were spotlessly clean, but one had one of those insectoid things splayed over it, its chest cavity wide open and the tools above it slick with green ichor.

"Understandable." Lisa spun on her heels and began to leave, Lincoln following close behind. "You're lucky I happened to be in this room when you emerged."

Lincoln shuddered, partly from the cold but mostly because of the thought of being trapped in there. "Yeah, lucky me."

As they passed the insectoid, he decided to have a closer look, and then immediately regretted his decision as his stomach rebelled at the sight of its innards and the horrible smell.

"Hopefully the other two are nearby." Lisa mused, approaching the lone door and placing her hand on a handprint scanner adjacent to it. It slid open quietly.

"They should be." Lincoln replied, stepping into the hallway. To his left, the hallway continued on, similar doors dotting the structure, all lit by the faint blue lights identical to the ones in the autopsy room. To his right, a dead end. A thin layer of frost seemed to have formed on a few of the walls, irregular and barely noticeable unless he tilted his view in the right way, but visible enough to reinforce the chill in the air. He let out a breath, noticing the small puff of white cloud.

He and Lisa moved down the hallway, opening many of the doors on the way to spot similar autopsy rooms and more empty storage closets. One of the rooms, at the very bottom of a flight of stairs, held a desk and a slim computer monitor, however.

Lincoln studied the room as they entered, Lisa making a beeline for the computer. The room was lined with photographic and painted portraits, all weirdly ancient and unrecognisable when compared to how new and clean everything else was. Even the plaques on the frames were illegible, or at least the ones that were still attached, and picking up one lying on the floor showed similar wear.

"Hm, it's password locked." Lisa mused, idly tapping the keys. "It does have a guest login, I'll use that to begin with and see what this operating system is like."

Lincoln walked up to the metal desk, which he saw was bolted to the floor, and looked over Lisa's shoulder. The OS of the machine looked pretty similar to the one he used at home, just thematically different. The background on the home screen was a solid black with a neon-blue icon, two arrowheads pointing left. He recalled similar arrowheads on the walls, ones he thought were just pointing in a direction. In the top right corner, a 2d map of the area was displayed, with two yellow dots above where they were and two yellow arrows pointing to the north-west corner. Below the map was a checklist, with four items checked off, all of them a series of jumbled letters and characters that seemed to change any time he looked away for a even a moment.

Lisa clicked open a spreadsheet of some kind, and Lincoln felt his mind go blank. He decided to check the desk drawers instead - one of them contained file folders, their labels and contents all jumbled. Another contained more files. The last one, however, yielded something more interesting, a bunch of what Lincoln thought were some kind of batteries. He picked one up and studied it closely.

Lisa spared a basic glance, and then took a double-take. "Are those…?"

Lincoln handed the one in his hand to Lisa. Lisa drew her pistol and popped something out from the back of it, and pushed the battery into where it was. The pistol's orange lights flickered to life. "Ammo for your heat ray?"

"I prefer the term "thermal beam projector", but yes." She began taking handfuls of the batteries and stuffing them in her pockets and pouches. Lincoln took a few and put them in one of his own pouches, just in case. Once finished, Lisa turned back to the computer and fiddled around with more documents, all of them jumbled up. "Hm, fascinating…"

"What's up?"

"Do you see this document?"

Lincoln squinted, hoping the jumbled letters would become less jumbled. "I _see_ it, but I can't read it."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Lincoln, I know you are of slightly above average intelligence and not afflicted by dyslexia. I fail to understand how you cannot read this document."

"It's just a bunch of jumbled letters." Lincoln pointed at the screen. "What's this word say?"

"Of."

"It says… qu- quistox-gh-eighty four slash slash asterisks Yen-"

"Yes, yes, I understand." Lisa turned back to the monitor. "Another trick of the entity. Regardless, this document seems to be about the anatomy of those insectoid beings. And this one-" She changed to another file. "- is about development of a self-generating energy source."

Lincoln looked over a prototype sketch. The device looked a lot like a gyroscope. Like those ones in previous worlds. "Huh."

"If these principles translate properly into reality, and we survive this, this may be worth developing…"

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Cuz last I checked those gyro things are prone to blowing up if they so much as get scratched."

"With the proper materials and containment facilities, maybe it would be safer."

Lincoln sighed. Reasoning with Lisa was difficult. Instead, he turned his attention back to the map, which Lisa had in view as she scanned another document. The two yellow arrows had disappeared, and instead two yellow dots were slowly approaching their location. He strode out of the room, and let the door open by itself, stepping out. Some distance up the stairs he spotted his other two sisters approaching. Lori was covered in slightly glowing green ichor, while Leni was untouched save for the already existing wear on her uniform. Leni brightened up and nearly fell down the stairs springing into Lincoln's not-exactly-open but welcoming arms. Lori followed behind at a more sensible pace.

"Hey, dweeb." Lori smiled.

"H-hey guys." Lincoln gently pushed Leni off him. "You doing okay?"

"Nearly got ambushed by one of those bug guy." Lori shrugged. "But it's been quiet this whole time, literally every bugman we've come across was already dead."

"Well, maybe things will be a lot easier for us this time, knock on wood." Lincoln imitated a knocking motion.

"Wait, where's the wood?" Leni asked.

"It's a saying." Leni replied, exasperated. "Now come on, we should get moving before something comes to us."

"Lisa! We're going!" Lincoln called out, and after a moment Lisa pattered up to him.

Minutes passed, as the four worked their way upwards. Rooms remained empty, or held bare shelving or more autopsy rooms holding all manner of creatures, many seen before in previous worlds but some not. One room held a strange black mass held within a tight containment cell, and Leni seemed particularly unnerved by that one. Another room, about half-way up according to Lisa's map, turned out not to be so much a room as an observation deck, overlooking massive, inactive gyro-thing, made of some space-age metal and suspended by rods and wires.

"It's weird seeing one of these things not made of stone." Lincoln murmured.

"Or shooting lasers." Lori added.

"Or exploding on us." Leni further added.

"I still think you building one of these is a terrible idea, Lis." Lincoln turned to Lisa.

"Wait, what?" Lori raised an eyebrow. "Lisa, why the heck would you want to do that?"

"I'll build a small one first, just to see if the principle works!" Lisa threw her hands into the air. "Jeez, I cannot hypothesise anything out loud without someone criticising me."

"Hey, guys, this screen thingy here's got some letters that are all weird. Does that mean anything?" Leni pointed to a monitor resting up against the window.

Lisa looked at the screen for a moment, then froze. "That's… That's unfathomable." She grabbed the screen and studied it closer.

"Uh, Lisa, we can't read that-"

"That's my name!" Lisa seemed startled, scared even. "It says I was the one who created this gyroscopic power source… As a weapon."

"That seems… both unsurprising and quite shocking." Lincoln mused.

"I've had some ideas on designing a near-limitless power generator that also doubles as a defencive system, but never as a weapon itself." Lisa pulled back. "Why on Earth would this attribute a machine that's…"

"Look, it's not important. This is literally some creation of some Lovecraftian thing that's trying to mess with us. I doubt any of these gyro-lasers would do anything in real life." Lori poked the screen. It shifted colour from blue to red, but otherwise didn't change. "The fact that only you can read it means this is trying to target you, so don't let it get to you."

Lisa stared at the screen for a moment, then turned away. "You're right. Clearly this thing is burrowing into our psyches, so the best we can do is not let it affect us."

"Easier said than done, but still, we should get moving." Lincoln gestured to the door. "Looking over that thing is a bit uncomfortable."

"Right." Lisa nodded, then stepped out.

The moment they had all stepped out of that room, however, the neon strips on the roof turned red, and some distorted warning siren blared. Garbled speech broke out through a hidden intercom system.

"Any idea what that said, Lisa?" Lori yelled over the sirens, already readying her glaive.

"It was just as jumbled as you heard it." Lisa replied, heatray drawn.

Lincoln noticed some gas leaking out of a small vent near them. Then, a thundering crash, as the gyro thing fell out of its moorings and crashed into the ground, thankfully not blowing anything up with it. Turning back from looking out the observation deck, a small pool of greenish fluid was forming near the vent. He tapped the tip of his sword into it, and noticed that it began to wear away as whatever substance it was ate at his sword. "Guys, adic pool!"

Lori turned to the vent, then swore as the pool grew in size. "Up the stairs! Move it!"

Lincoln ran, moving up the closest set of stairs as fast as he could. Behind him he could hear the vents breaking apart and fluid rushing behind him, a horrible stench quickly filling his nose. Lori and Leni passed him, as did Lisa despite being much shorter than him. Curse this armour.

Suddenly the world went all weird and his head smashed squarely into one of the edges of the stairway. His foot had caught another edge. He pulled himself upright, only to hear another rumbling sound to his left. He turned his head, slowly, and noticed another vent, gas rising out from it.

"Oh no-"

His vision suddenly became entirely green as a torrent of acid burst straight into him. For a brief moment, it felt oddly refreshing as it washed away some of the dirt and grime that has accumulated on his face.

Then, instantly, pain.

Sheer, ungodly, unrelenting pain.

He screamed, but this only let the acid into his body easier. It felt like he was on fire and drowning at the same time. He never knew he could even feel this kind of agony.

Then, almost as suddenly as it started, he felt nothing.

He opened his eyes. His body vaguely tingled, and as he cast his gaze across to the campfire, he spotted his sword lying in front of him, a little chipped and worn but still sharp and not-melted.

He patted himself down. His gear seemed intact. As was his body. He breathed a sigh of relief, sitting against one of the sunken logs.

He waited. And waited. Only the vague sound of crackling fire, muffled by some arcane means, kept his ears from ringing.

Honestly, as terrifying as this whole... thing was, he was glad just to have a moment of quiet to himself. He leant back and closed his eyes, figuring a nap would do him the world of good.

Five minutes passed, and he realised he couldn't sleep. Not because of his armour, no, he could probably sleep in that. He just couldn't get any sleep despite his exhaustion, as if something prevented him from doing so.

He sighed, and contented himself with wandering around. Swinging his sword a few times, getting a proper idea of its weight, anything to keep his mind busy.

What felt like ten minutes passed. Maybe Lori, Leni and Lisa made it out?

He sat back down. He waited for either one of his sisters to appear, or for the gate to open.

A while passed. Finally, a flash of white light, followed by another mere seconds afterwards. Lori and Lisa appeared. Both looked quite shaken up.

"That was literally the worst thing I have ever felt." Lori's voice was a little shaky. "I swear to God if I develop PTSD from this I'm going to kick something."

"Please don't let me be the thing you kick." Lisa murmured, content to lie on the ground for a moment.

"No promises."

Another flash of light. Leni emerged, falling to her knees and looking quite distraught.

"Not fun, is it?" Lincoln said, sympathetic to Leni's pain.

"I just want this to be over…" Leni sniffed. "What did we do to deserve this?"

"Well, if we keep going, we might have a chance to ask it."

"New plan - I'm going to kick this entity." Lori grabbed her glaive. "Come on, you bastard! Give us your best!"

As if on cue, another misty gate opened. Lori was the first in, rushing forward with her glaive. Lincoln walked up to Leni, and offered his hand.

"Hey, don't worry, I've got you."

Leni, teary-eyed, grabbed his hand, and as Lisa stepped through they approached the gate, and stepped through themselves. No matter how tightly he held on, though, Leni's hand slipped away from his.


	7. Chapter 7: The Wasteland

The ever-familiar lurch of reality asserting itself hit Lincoln again. He was starting to both get used to it, and sick of it.

Much to his surprise, though, he had emerged right next to his sisters. No need to search for them, a welcome relief.

Reorienting himself, he cast his gaze to his surroundings. He found himself standing on a small rise in a desolate, grey-brown wasteland, bathed in a barely-twilight light and overcast sky and whipping with dusty winds. Some distance away he could see a thick dust cloud on the horizon, except in one direction.

He heard a noise, a beeping sound. Snapping out of his slight daze, he turned around, and noticed that something on Leni's belt had a light that was fading on and off in rapid succession. "Uh, Leni?"

Leni turned around, then looked down at her belt, grabbing the object from it and pulling it up from what seemed to be a magnetic lock, judging by the lack of straps, visible locks or pouch. "It's a beepy thingy."

Lincoln looked at the object in her hand. The device was quite simple, something roughly the size of a brick but made of metal, with a simple green monochrome display and a couple of buttons, like a primitive-sort of tablet. Rings pulsed from one of the screen's corners, and a rough geographic map was displayed. The map shifted when Leni tilted it, keeping itself in the correct position.

"Looks like some kind of tracking device." Lori mused. "But where's it pointing us to?"

"No idea." Lincoln replied. "Should we follow it?"

Lori scanned the horizon. "I… don't see much in the way of options."

"They're really railroading us, aren't they?" Lincoln groaned

"I can't see any train tracks, Lincoln." Leni said, looking across the horizon herself.

Lincoln sighed. "It's… never mind, let's go."

Leni lead the way, following the tracker, and only occasionally had to be prodded by Lori to make sure she was on the right path. The walk was tiring, not because it was difficult but because Lincoln had been on his feet for pretty much the whole time he'd been in this hell of a reality, and he surprised he wasn't _as_ exhausted as he should be, even considering his armour.

The whole time, the wind whipped around them. Any time it died down, even for a brief moment, he heard a whispering voice, distant yet audible, and saying nothing intelligible. Leni, however, seemed to quite… disturbed by it, but kept trudging on regardless.

The team passed a dead tree, so far the only sign of life, former or not, in this godforsaken wasteland. As they did, the winds died down entirely, and Lincoln could very clearly hear the whispering voice. Away from them, by about a hundred yards, he could see some kind of shadowy… thing, and from what he could tell the whisper was coming from it. That, and the other ten or so that started showing up around them in pretty much every other direction, appearing out of his field of view. They didn't seem to be moving.

Neither was Leni, though. She had gone stiff, as if the unsettling whispers were actually doing something to her. Lincoln tapped her shoulder, and she snapped back to reality, startled.

"Hey, Leni, you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." She smiled wearily. A lie if Lincoln ever heard one, but he knew she didn't like making people worry.

"Come on, let's keep moving." He gave her an encouraging smile, keeping his voice soft. This seemed to help Leni to some degree, and the team kept moving, albeit quite slowly.

Not even ten steps ahead, Leni froze again, covering her ears and whimpering softly as the tracker clattered on the ground. Lincoln went to comfort her and keep her moving, but in the corner of his vision he noticed that the shadowy things were _much_ closer than before.

Lori scooped up the tracker, then pressed against Leni's back, firmly but carefully pushing her forwards, or as best as she could. "Come on, Leni!"

The area around them flashed orange and a deafening, fiery roar caused Lincoln to jump a little. Lisa fired her thermal pistol into one of the shadows, which flickered and faded away, only for another one to appear a few yards back from where it was. "Dang it!" She yelled out.

"Oh come on!" Lincoln yelled.

Another flash of light, this time blue. Leni had finally stopped covering her ears, only to start firing wildly at the shadows. "No! Shut up!"

"Leni?!" Lori shouted. "What are you-?!"

Leni didn't even hear her. The whispering voices were nearly deafening Lincoln, but remarkably he could hear everyone else over them despite that.

"Stop saying those things!" Leni continued to fire, blind terror in her voice.

Lori growled, and practically rammed her shoulder into Leni's back. "Keep moving!"

The jolt seemed to bring Leni back into reality just enough to move. Under Lori's guidance she sprinted, stumbling as she nearly tripped over small rises, and the slowly approaching shadows which appeared to blink closer to them any time they didn't look at them.

As Lincoln and Lisa followed closely behind them, he spotted a small, dilapidated shack in the distance. "Up ahead!"

Lori glanced up from between watching her flanks, the tracker, and Leni. "The tracker's pointing there!"

"Go! Run!" Lisa yelled out. Lincoln snapped his head back. The shadows were nearly on Lisa, and she was falling behind. "I'll cover you!"

"Let me help!" Lincoln called back, and dropped into a stance, shield raised and sword back ready to swing at the shadow things. They shuffled closer, some blinking out and reappearing well ahead of where they were, their whispers intense.

Then they went right past him.

Lincoln blinked.

"Wait, what?" He turned to Lisa, who was closing to his side. "Why aren't they attacking us?"

"They must be after Leni."

"What? Why?"

"Think about it-"

"Tell me while we move, okay?" Lincoln said, already making a break for the other two, flashes of golden arcs a distance away as Lori swung her glaive.

"Well, to keep it simple, Leni's been reacting severely to these things' voices, and I've noticed that whatever passes for occulary sensory 'organs' on these things seem to focus on her exclusively." Lisa fired another lance of heat, clipping three of the shadows and opening a quick path for the two of them. "Ergo I reckon the goal of these things is to dispose of Leni."

"We gotta help her then." Lincoln paused. "Get on my back."

Lisa didn't question it, and leapt onto his back, securing herself as best she could. Lincoln crouched forwards and broke into a sprint, slow to start from the extra weight but quickly barrelling ahead. Lisa fired a few more beams to clear a path and thin the increasingly-dense horde of shadows, the weapon uncomfortably close to his head if the smell of burnt hair was anything to go by.

Within moments they reached the other two, standing in front of the rusted metal shack, Lori fending off the shadows while Leni tried to work the door. Lincoln spun around and immediately blocked something that speared out of the mass of one of the shadows, as Lisa leapt off her back, rolled, and cleared the shadow from existence.

"They're after Leni!"

"What gave you _that_ idea, moron?" Lori cleaved a shadow in two. "Don't answer that, Lisa."

"You've worked it out then?"

"They haven't touched me yet, but keep going after her." Another swing, this time a miss, but she followed it up with a kick that seemed to work just as well as the glaive would have. "Leni, how's the lock?"

"It's…" Leni seemed to be straining. "Dang it, I can't do it!"

"Have you-?" Lincoln began to ask.

"Yes, I tried to bust it open." Lori snapped back. "Did literally nothing."

"Dang it!" Lincoln yelled. He swung his sword at a shadow thing getting uncomfortably close to Leni, using his shield to hold one next to it back. "Come on, Leni, you can do it!"

"I can't!" She practically sobbed out. "These things keep saying that I can't do anything, a-and maybe they're right."

Lori groaned. "Lisa, cover me!" She spun around and grabbed Leni's head, holding it close to hers. "Listen, Leni, you are the most capable woman I know. These things? They don't know you as well as I do."

"B-but they're saying things that only I think about. About how I'm an idiot and I don't know anything, and that nobody really loves me-"

"That is literally bullshit, Leni. Yes, you may not know a lot of things, but what you do know you know practically all there is to know about it. You're talented, and amazing, and I love you more than the whole world."

Leni remained speechless.

Lori's face hardened. "And if you don't get that door open right now, everything I said will mean nothing, and I couldn't live with myself if that happened." And it softened again. "I know you can do it, Leni."

Leni held still for a moment, then nodded with grim determination, spinning back around and focusing on the lock again. Lincoln stepped to Lori's side, the two of them creating an effective barrier for Leni.

"That worked?" Lincoln murmured.

"It better had, otherwise we are literally screwed." She whispered.

"Got it!" Leni shouted excitedly.

"Well done, Leni!" Lori cheered.

Leni yanked the door open. "Come on, let's get inside!"

Lori paused for a second.

And then pushed her through the doorway.

Leni staggered, but kept her footing. "What-?"

Lori slammed the door shut.

"Lori! What the heck?!" Lincoln shouted.

"I have no idea what else she needs to do, but at least we can buy her some time."

"B-but this is the last world! There's no other candle to do that with!"

Lori hesitated. "If anyone should get out of here, it's her."

"And Lisa, apparently."

Lori blinked, then looked around her. The shadows weren't advancing, but Lisa was nowhere to be seen. "Son of a bitch, she must've snuck inside."

"Well, that means we can go in, right? These things don't seem to be attacking us."

Lori sighed. "And here I was thinking I'd be doing a heroic sacrifice."

A strange, piercing tone rang out, and the white dots that functioned as the shadows' eyes turned red.

"Oh no." She murmured.

"Run!" Lincoln yelled, yanking the door open, but felt several sharp pains through his body, shadowy spears jutting through him. Then they retracted as soon as they had entered, and he collapsed.

As he laid there, Lori falling next to him and what Lincoln thought was blood filled his lungs and his vision began slipping from him, he let out a sigh that turned into a cough.

 _So this is what it's like to die_ , he thought.

 _Bit underwhelming_.

And then, darkness.

Moments later, his eyes snapped open. His lungs were clear, and in his vision he saw the great bonfire he had grown to recognise and loathe.

He shot up. "H-huh?"

A brief flash of light, and Lori appeared, equally bewildered. "What the heck?"

"Lori? Lincoln?"

Lincoln spun his head around. Leni was standing there, her uniform now immaculate. Lisa was beside her too, her uniform equally tidied up. "Leni?"

Leni leant down and helped him up. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

Lincoln definitely felt sore, but more from overall exhaustion than anything. "I'm… fine. You?"

"I'm feeling great. Well, sorta." Leni helped Lori up.

"Apparently, actually completing the requisite task restores your physical ailments and repairs your gear to optimal standards." Lisa added. "Or, in short, winning heals you up."

"That would've been handy to know earlier." Lori murmured.

"But wait, what about the candles? All six of them are burnt out." Lincoln asked.

"Does that mean we won?" Leni asked excitedly. "Please tell me we won."

A flash of light behind them all. "There's still the bonfire." A strained, quiet voice replied.

Lincoln spun around, the sound of the voice one he hadn't heard in a while.

Kneeling on the ground, struggling to get herself up under the weight of her gothic-styled armour, was…

"... Lucy?"


	8. Chapter 8: The Suburbs

Lincoln could barely believe it. "... What are… How…?"

Lucy managed to get herself on her feet, although barely. "You're… not black-and-white." She staggered forwards and placed a hand on Lincoln's chest, and seemed almost surprised, or at least as surprised as she could look given her demeanour, that her hand actually made contact.

Another flash of light flickered, reflected in the few parts of Lucy's armour that weren't worn and dull, and Lincoln heard someone hit the ground behind him with a thud. "Agh, bleedin' hell…"

He spun around, and saw Luna pulling herself up. He walked up and offered to help her up, which she accepted. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, dude. Just a rough landing." She smiled. Then blinked. She placed her hand on Lincoln's face. "Woah."

"I know, this is a bit weird." He replied, muffled by her hand.

It didn't take much longer for everyone else to appear in similar flashes of light. Following Luna was Lana, freaking out and almost acting feral until Lori calmed her down. Then Luan, remarkably cheery and making a pun from her cause of death, even as she struggled to bring herself upright. Following her was Lynn, who emerged swinging her maul with abandon, and it was only thanks to Lisa's height she didn't get hit by it before she had a chance to chill. Lastly, Lola emerged, her gear and uniform pristine but her mood sour and dark. Much poking and prodding (and a smack from Lynn, much to Lincoln's frustrations) was done, the dectet working out that, for one reason or another, they were all in the same area this time.

For the first time in a while, Lori genuinely, warmly smiled. "You would literally not believe how happy I am right now."

"You and me both, sis." Luna replied, sitting on one of the embedded logs and undoing the straps on her weapon, taking a chance to rest her arm. "No offence, Lola and Lynn, but hanging around _just_ you two was getting a bit on my nerves."

"Gee, thanks, Luna, that makes me feel _soooo_ much better." Lola hissed.

"Oh come on, you're the only one of us who actually managed not to die." Lynn snapped back. "At least you have that going for-"

"I thought you _actually_ died this time!" Lola shouted. "I barely managed to get to the airship, and I thought I was gonna be the only one to make it out of this twisted place, l-leaving me with no friends or family!" She began to breathe deeply. "S-so when Luna just said she'd rather be around someone else…!"

Luna immediately leapt up and wrapped her arms around Lola. "Woah, woah, dude, I didn't say I didn't like being around you."

"You kinda did, though." Lynn shrugged.

"Shh." Luna hissed. "Look, I'm sorry, Lola. I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, she's still _dying_ to hang out with you." Luan giggled to herself.

"Luan I swear to God I will tear out your bloody throat if you say something like that again." Luna shot her a glare.

Luan raised her hands. "Okay, jeez, just trying to lighten the mood."

Lori placed a hand on Luan's shoulder. "I think everyone needs a bit of time to calm down and get their bearings before we can crack jokes."

"And while I abhor the method, the effort is appreciated nonetheless." Lisa added.

Lincoln smiled, then turned to Lucy. "How are you holding up, Luce?"

"Really could be better." Lucy responded in her usual, emotionless voice. "But at least I don't have to project myself to see you guys again." A slight smile. "And you?"

"I'm just sick of this whole thing, if I'm honest." Lincoln frowned.

"Same." Lynn added. "They're not even fighting fair, whoever the heck these guys are."

"Do any of us really know who's controlling this?"

"All I know is that it's something that knows us, deeper than most of us know ourselves, all our flaws and fears. And I feel like it's testing us for some reason." Lucy murmured.

"I've _passed_ P.E. tests harder than this." Lynn frowned. "So why do I keep screwing up and dying?"

"Maybe it's not just about physical ability." Lincoln stroked his chin. "Maybe it has something to do with working within our limits?"

"If that's what's going on, then that's dumb. I'm pretty sure that if this thing wasn't rigged against me I could do this with two hands tied behind my back."

"Arrogance." Lucy muttered.

" _Excuse me?_ " Lynn shot her a look.

"Arrogance." Lucy replied. "You keep charging head-first into battle with no plan and a foolhardy belief that you are incapable of failure, and this leads you into unwinnable situations."

"Like you know me better than I know me." Lynn crossed her arms. "Lincoln, you know me, you tell her she's wrong."

Lincoln raised his hands defensively. "I'm… not gonna get involved in this."

"Oh, you sack of sh-"

"So," Lisa started. "We've been talking for a while. I suspect the next gateway, if there is one, should open up momentarily."

Everyone paused for a second.

Nothing.

"Huh. Guess not." Leni replied.

"This sucks." Lana moaned. "I just wanna go home, Charles probably misses me."

"If we're not, like, frozen in time or something." Lola added.

"So while we wait, why don't we tell each other what happened in our journeys?" Luan asked, sitting herself down on one of the logs. "Because boy, Team LaLuLu's could fill a novel."

"We never agreed to that name, Luan." Lana grumbled.

"It's too late, it's stuck." Lucy sighed.

"So anyway, first we-"

A bright light flooded the area, as another white gate opened, this one eerily silent as opposed to deafeningly loud.

"Oh come on!"

"Is this it? Are we going home now?" Lana asked.

"Gosh I hope so." Leni replied, her tone a little weary.

"Only one way to find out." Lynn slung her maul over her shoulder and strode towards it.

Lincoln grabbed her free arm before she could step through, however. "Hold on, Lynn."

Lynn snapped her head back and shot him a look. "What?"

"Maybe we should all go in together, as a team."

Lynn paused, then sighed, smiling slightly. "Yeah, that's a smart idea." She turned back to the group. "Alright, Louds, gear up and form up!"

"Tanks up front, ranged DPS and support in the back, everyone else in the middle."

Except for Lori, everyone hesitated.

Lincoln sighed. "Lucy and I up the front, Lori, Lynn, Lana behind us, everyone else behind them."

The group rearranged themselves to that formation, albeit with much fuss, some hesitation, and minimal coordination.

"Basic raid formation. Smart." Lori patted Lincoln on the head.

"Thanks." Lincoln smiled. "Ready?"

"I was _born_ ready!" Lynn shouted.

"Alright, let's go." Lincoln moved forwards, stepping through the silent gate and into the white, gravity-less void.

…

And reappeared, upright as he had grown to be used to. His formation, however, was shattered, as everyone emerged in different locations and in different levels of uprightness.

Lynn picked herself up from the ground, dusting herself off. "I hate that thing."

"Uh, guys…?" Leni started. "I can't tell, are we home?"

Lincoln looked around him. Everything had that grey-brown haze over it all that the wasteland had, and all the buildings looked modern but worn down and gargantuan in size. He spotted a sign near what looked like an old road. He approached it, and wiped away some of the grime off its surface. In faded text, it read "Royal Woods", with jumbled letters and even some unrecognisable characters in the place of any other text.

"I… think we are."

"No." Lori murmured, readying herself. "No, we're not. Everything's wrong."

"A facsimile of our home town, it seems." Lisa mused.

"Screw that noise." Luna growled.

"So where do you think we should go?" Lisa asked, mostly to Lincoln but open to others.

"The mall?" Leni asked, innocently.

"Maybe it wants us to go home?" Luan proposed. "It's not like there's much else to go by."

"Well, if we're where we think we are," Lucy murmured, "Then we might be going past the mall anyway if we head home."

"Yay~!" Leni cheered.

"No! No 'yay'!" Lori yelled. "As far as we know the mall is literally full of demon zombie clothes."

"Demon zombie clothes?" Lynn raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"You know what I mean."

"It's probably still worth checking out." Lincoln replied.

"Wait wait, hold on." Lola started. "What if it wants us to head to the mall or home or whatever, just so it can kill us? Cuz I dunno about you guys, but I don't wanna become some monster's lunch."

"Do you have any better ideas, Lola?" Lana crossed her arms.

"Yes, actually. Heading backwards." She pointed to behind her. "And I'm gonna go that way now."

"Wait, Lola-!"

Lola spun on her heels and took a few steps before she smacked head-first into an invisible barrier. "Agh! Dang it!"

"So, I guess _not_ that way then?"

"Crud, I thought I was onto something."

"Well, guess we're gonna be going to the demon mall." Lincoln shrugged.

"After you, then, Mister Raid Tank or whatever you said you were." Lynn gestured.

Lincoln frowned, then began his journey onwards. Lucy joined his side, helping point him in the right direction.

Or at least until they realised that the town wasn't entirely laid out like normal.

For the most part it followed the rough city plan from where they ended up, but with huge chunks carved out of it, and some of the roads twisted and crossed in odd ways that took a few moments to recognise.

Probably the most notable thing on their journey so far was the sudden appearance of an oversized and dilapidated minigolf course, right in the middle of one of the roads, the road itself curving around the dead grass.

"Wait, isn't this supposed to be a few blocks west?" Lori raised an eyebrow, stepping onto the turf. "And also smaller? And greener?"

"Why on earth is there a golf course in the middle of the road?" Lynn asked.

"Does it… want us to play golf?" Leni asked.

"I doubt that." Lori mused, tapping her foot on the ground. "Hm, doesn't look like there's much here-"

Behind her, the ground erupted into a hail of dirt, grass, and half-burnt golf balls, a giant figure bursting into the air. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the very debris moved backwards in time, healing up as if the figure hadn't broken out to begin with. The giant hit the ground with a solid thump, easily three times Lori's height once it pulled itself upright.

Lori spun around and prepared to strike, but hesitated.

The giant before her looked almost exactly like her, current getup and all, albeit much larger. In place of her glaive, it wielded a massive hammer. Its eyes were entirely white, and softly glowing. Most strikingly, it had two heads, fused together. One of them, the main head, glared down at Lori with a smug smile, and the other looked like it was in distress.

"What the hell?"

"Well look, it's the merry band of idiots, and Lori as well." The main head said.

"She's the idiot." The second head strained to say, as if insulting her caused her pain.

"Hey! Don't call me an idiot! Or them, for that matter." Lori snapped back.

"Tell you what. You help us… remove your friends, and we'll get you back home."

"She's too weak to fight anyone, her brother would kill her."

"Oh my gosh, can you two _please_ stop talking?!" Lola moaned.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Titan Lori snapped back.

"Talking is the only way she can feel alive."

Lori growled.

"So, Lori, what do you say? It wouldn't be hard at all, and you'd get to go home, literally no problem at all."

"She will be killed instantly, and literally nobody would even miss her."

"Lori, don't listen to it!" Leni shouted.

"I'm not!" Lori snapped. "God, why would you even think I'd listen to a word I'm- I mean, they're saying!"

Lincoln felt his heart sink a little. Steeling himself, he walked up next to Lori, and readied his shield. "I've got your back."

Lori spared him a glance, and smiled. "Thanks, twerp."

"Asking your _brother_ for help is useless, he's not even half-as-strong as you are."

"She needs validation to feel like she matters to anyone."

"Y'know what? Screw your offer!" Lori pointed her glaive at the Titan. "We're a family, and no amount of coddling or insulting will make me fight them."

Both heads frowned. "Fine."

"Fine."

It raised its warhammer over its head.

"Then you'll die with them!"

"Then you'll die with them!"

Lori and Lincoln dove out of the way just in time for the hammer to strike the ground, an eruption of dirt following just behind it. Lola pulled her rifle out and opened fire, a hail of pink shots raining harmlessly on its armour. With a sound of a heavy guitar riff, Luna launched a shockwave from her own arm-mounted sonic cannon, causing the Titan to stagger, but not for long enough. As it lunged forwards, Lucy dove between it and Luna and deflected the hammer from striking her side, at the cost of breaking her own shield arm. Luan raised her hand into the air and planted it on Lucy, energy spiralling around her broken arm and mending it. At the same time, Lynn and Lana leapt forwards and swung their weapons into the Titan's legs, one buckling under the sheer weight of Lana's club but not breaking, the other shuddering as red electricity coursed through it. Luna kicked forwards, toppling it as it struggled to keep upright. Lincoln, now upright, plunged his sword down into the Titan's head, but it simply grazed it as it seemed to be deflected.

"Only Lori is strong enough to defeat me-!" The titan shouted.

"Lori isn't strong enough to defeat anything-"

It was cut off by Lori placing her glaive on its fused neck, aiming a downwards strike. "Cut it out, you two."

"Why do you continue to defend these-"

"Why do you continue to fight when-"

Lori yelled, and swung her glaive right down through its neck. Rather than a great big display of violence, it simply turned into black mist which coiled around itself for a moment before bursting into nothingness with a strange, ominous tone subtly carrying along the wind for a moment.

After a moment of silence, Leni bounced up and down. "Yay! We won!"

"You didn't do anything." Lynn replied.

Leni froze. "Oh. Oh yeah, whoopsie." She laughed nervously. "Sorry about that."

"Not like you could have done much." Lucy added, checking her arm. "Only Lori seemed to be able to do anything."

"So now we know the theme of this world." Luan mused. "That being, big monster-y versions of ourselves that we have to confront."

"Surprised this one went down as quick as it did." Lincoln checked his sword.

"Eh, it was talking a load of bull." Lori shrugged.

"But… wasn't it supposed to be a representation of your inner thoughts?"

"Well yeah, but I've learnt that those kinds of thoughts are literally not worth thinking about, even if I can't turn them off forever."

Lincoln went to reply, but found himself at a loss for words. Maybe he should talk it out with her later.

For now, though, there was more pressing matters to attend to. Like getting home.

After rounding up his sisters, the team continued their long, arduous, and frankly frustrating walk. As they passed by the theater, Lincoln noticed a strange, circular pattern on the ground the size of a large room and made from some weird black substance, and paused just before he entered it.

Luan also noticed it too, and stopped just before she stepped into it. "Huh."

Leni, however, didn't, and walked right through it, and into a sudden black wall that appeared only a few feet on the other side of the circle. "Ow! Who put that wall there?"

"Peculiar…" Lisa poked the circle itself. "I have no idea what to make of this."

"It looks kind of like a ritual circle." Lucy mused. "Though it lacks any pattern inside it."

Lori put her hand on the black barrier, giving a few pushes. "Doesn't look like we can go any further."

"Maybe we have to step inside it?" Lana asked.

"For once, I think Lana has a point." Lola replied.

"You do realise how crazy this all sounds, right?" Lynn poked the circle with her feet. "Though, it doesn't look like I can scale the wall, so…"

"Guess we don't have much of a choice then, dudes." Luna said, stepping into the circle. Reluctantly, the rest of them stepped into it, some after thoroughly testing the wall.

The only one not to step in was Luan.

"Come on, Luan." Lincoln gestured.

"I… I dunno, guys, this seems like a bad idea."

"Do you have any other ideas?"

Luan stammered. "I, uh…"

"Well, then it looks like you don't have much of a choice, then."

Very, _very_ reluctantly, Luan stepped into the circle.

The moment both of her feet were inside the boundary, the entire area shifted into a black void, with only the outline of the circle visible, now as a bright yellow light.

Maniacal, cackling laughter rang out around them. " **Fooooools!** "

Swirling from the abyss, a long, serpentine blob of nearly-black yellow appeared, covered in buck-toothed mouths. At the head was a feminine shape, a second, long tail from behind its head, two glowing yellow eyes glaring down at them.

" **Glad to see you all, fam!** " It spoke, all the mouths speaking at once at slightly different pitches. It sounded like Luan, and after a moment's thought looked quite similar to her as well.

"Well, this is different." Lynn murmured.

"So, what's your gimmick?" Lori placed her hand on her hip.

" **An interesting question, Miss Toots-a-Lot.** " The many mouths on Shade Luan smirked as she appeared right next to Lori.

"H-hey! It's my shoe that does that." Lori snapped back.

" **Of course you'd say that, anyone as blind as you would miss something** _ **that**_ **obvious.** " Shade Luan laughed.

"You're a real comedian, aren't you?" Lola crossed her arms.

" **I'd say you read us like a book, but I know you can't do that very well so it wouldn't be appropriate.** "

"I can _totally_ read!" Lola shouted. "I… just have some trouble sometimes."

"Wait, you said 'us'." Leni started. "Does that mean there's more than one of you?"

" **Oh wow, well done working that out all on your own,** _ **genius.**_ "

Leni retreated a little, a nerve having been struck.

" **In a manner of speaking, yes, there's more than one of us here.** " It snapped its finger, and Luan was suddenly bathed in a bright spotlight with no obvious source.

Everyone's eyes fell on Luan.

"Eh, makes enough sense in context." Lisa mused, unfazed.

" **Glad someone's brain hasn't dissolved itself in a nuclear accident.** " Shade Luan smirked.

"Wait, so does that mean she also thinks that about u-" Lana started.

"Oh screw this!" Lynn shouted, charging forwards and swinging her maul hard. It bounced harmlessly off Shade Luan, and it just laughed.

" **Sorry, Lynn, but none of you except Luan can hurt me, and Luan's only got a stick,** _ **so I guess that makes me invincible!**_ " Shade Luan burst into maniacal laughter, even as Lynn continued to flail pointlessly at her.

"Why… Won't… You… Die?!" Lynn screamed.

" **Jeez, and I thought Leni was the idiot.** " It reached out and flicked Lynn on the nose, which sent her flying across the 'room' and into Luna.

"Lynn!" Lincoln shouted, moving to help. Shade Luan suddenly appeared in front of him, though.

" **And what do you think you can do, huh? Make a plan? Try to boss your sisters around to do what you want them to do?** "

"Leave them alone!" Luan shouted, before Lincoln could think of a retort.

Shade Luan turned to Luan. " **Oh** **come on, we know we're both thinking these same things.** "

"Well, _buck_ le down, cuz I've got enough jokes to fill your mouths." Luan giggled. "Get it?"

" **... What are you doing…?** "

"Cracking some jokes, obviously." Luan grinned. "What's wrong? Jealous that you lack a funny bone in that non-existent skeleton of yours?"

" **Wh-** " Shade Luan twitched, then part of its skin burst open with a jet of yellow flame, as it screamed.

"Hey, don't _burst_ into anger like that, I don't want you to _crack under pressure_ on me."

" **That's not funny!** " It screamed as two more jets shot out of it.

"And you are?" Luan raised an eyebrow. "You were just throwing insults around, that's not comedy. You must be really _spineless_ to get down to that level." She laughed, as another jet burst open.

" **Tell that to your sisters!** " It yelled, leaning in close even as its form began to wither away. " **I** _ **am**_ **your deepest thoughts!** "

"To that, I say _neigh_." She laughed. "Get it? Cuz we have a _pony_ tail." She frowned. "Hm, that one might be a bit of a stretch, though it seems you're running a bit _thin_ on material yourself."

A loud, ungodly scream rang out as everyone covered their ears, as Shade Luan erupted even more flames before being completely engulfed in yellow fire before burning away.

Silence.

"I can't believe that-"

Laughter, which grew louder and louder. " **Nice try, Luan!** " Swirling back out from the darkness, Shade Luan reappeared, as if nothing had happened. " **I can see what you were going for, out-insult and make jokes based off us, that'd be the way to defeat me.** " It slow clapped. " **Shame that was completely the wrong way to do it.** "

Luan glowered. "Lincoln, sword."

" **What?** "

Lincoln looked at his sword, then held it out to Luan hilt-first. "Here you go."

" **As if that's-** "

Luan yelled, and thrust the sword deep into Shade Luan's chest. It screamed again, this time even more shocked, as it started to form into shadow. As Luan pulled the sword out the creature burst into thin vapour and then to nothing, as the shadowy world around them faded away.

She smiled, then handed the sword back to Lincoln. "Thank you."

Lincoln took the sword back. "I… guess that works?"

"Weird. My laser thingy doesn't work when held by anyone else." Leni said, looking at her pistol.

"Maybe it's a tech level thing." Lincoln shrugged.

"Well, whatever happened, it worked." Lori sighed. "Anyway, we should keep moving. After you, Lucy."

"Sigh." Lucy said, before moving on, her sisters following.

The walk continued much the same as normal, the twisted and bleak version of Royal Woods leaving Lincoln on edge. That feeling did not fade once they finally reached the Mall, gargantuan and almost cathedral-like in comparison to the vaguely 50's-like design of the original. Not that Lincoln was an expert on architecture.

Leni, however, seemed unfazed. "We're here! Did they redecorate?"

" _Someone_ did." Lana mused.

"Eugh, it looks gross." Lola shiverred.

Leni continued on ahead, towards the mall. "I wonder if they're having an event?"

"Leni, wait!" Lori shouted, bouncing ahead of her and stopping her from moving.

"Come on, Lori, I wanna go to the mall."

"No." Lori's gaze hardened. "You… You do realise we're not even _in_ Royal Woods, right?"

Leni paused for a second. "Well duh. But, like, if there's a mall, then maybe there's some other people? Or some sales?"

"Listen, there is nothing inside there."

Leni's eyes widened.

"I know you want to go inside, but going inside will literally be certain death."

Leni didn't respond, her gaze focusing away from Lori. Lincoln saw a column of black smoke spiral around behind Lori.

"So we are going to go around, and leave this demon mall alone. Do you get me?"

No response. Lori frowned, shaking Leni a little.

"Are you even listening to me?"

The spiral of shadow coalesced into a tall, voluptuous humanoid shape, two pinpricks of white light as its eyes and a shadowy mass of hair that looked a lot like Leni's. Lincoln heard the incoherent whispers of those shadow-blobs from the last world, and instinctively readied his shield.

"Leni!"

The shadowy titan raised its arm, one of its hands growing out into a long, sickle-like blade. Lincoln saw a blur of red, as Lynn barreled forwards and charged into the two girls, knocking them out of the way of the sickle-arm just as it stabbed right down where Leni was, shattering the concrete with a deafening crunch.

"Lynn! What was that-" Lori caught the creature in the corner of her eyes, and shrieked. "What the hell?! Where'd that come from?!"

Lynn grabbed Leni and pulled her well out of Shadow Leni's range. Lincoln saw at least twenty smaller shadow-creatures spring up from the ground around them all. "Incoming!"

Luan dashed over to help bring Leni upright, laying her hand on her and forming a rippling yellow wave of energy over her. Luna, Lola, and Lisa opened fire on Shadow Leni, the attacks doing nothing, before changing targets to the smaller creatures. Lynn sprang into action and began to swing at the mob of shadows, great crimson arcs of electricity leaping between a few with each solid impact. Lucy and Lincoln moved to provide cover for Leni, who was cowering and covering her ears. Lana joined Lynn in her enthusiastic assault, her club knocking two or three of the creatures down with each swing. Lori gathered herself and pulled herself up, aiming to use her glaive to keep Shadow Leni back.

"Dang it, not these things again!" Lincoln gritted his teeth.

"Hey, Leni, not to rush you or anything, but we're gonna get our butts handed to us!" Lana shouted.

"I'm gonna run dry on ammo if this keeps going!" Lola yelled.

"Leni, come on!" Luan called out, her hand on her shoulder trying to get Leni's attention. "Leni!"

It didn't work. Leni had her ears covered, and seemed to be mumbling, telling the voices to stop being mean.

Lincoln bisected a shadow-creature that has suddenly appeared in front of him. "It's not working!"

"Kick her or something!" Lynn yelled.

"Dudes, watch out!" Luna yelled. Lincoln found himself flung far from Leni, as Shadow Leni reached between him and Lucy and threw them aside as if they were nothing, Lori's attempts to slow it down doing nothing.

"Leni!" Lincoln yelled, already getting upright, just as Shadow Leni's sickle-arm swung down towards Leni-

-and struck Lori in the stomach, the tip of the blade mere inches from Leni, who was now looking directly at Lori's back.

"Lori!" Leni shrieked.

Shadow Leni drew its blade back, but Lori still kept upright, albeit on weak knees, blood already pooling and disintegrating into white light. "You'll have to go through me to get to her…" She coughed, then fell to one knee. "Agh, shit…"

"Hold on!" Luan bounced forwards and laid her hand on Lori, a spiral of yellow light already moving to her gaping wound, even as Lori fell onto her side.

The whispers went dead silent.

Leni stared at Lori, inches from death. Her eyes widened, then hardened, as she pulled herself upright even as the whispers returned at an almost deafening volume. "You... "

Shadow Leni raised its blade and swung down hard, but the blade skimmed off a formerly-invisible barrier of gold light which disintegrated. And then again, but Leni managed to catch the blade almost before it pierced her own chest any deeper than a graze.

Yelling, she pulled it out and threw it aside, pulling her pistol out and aiming it at Shadow Leni's head. The tip of the weapon glowed brightly. "You hurt my sister!"

She pulled the trigger. For a split second, a bright blue but otherwise harmless laser hit Shadow Leni square between the eyes. Then, a catastrophically-large beam of raw, deafening energy burst forwards from the barrel of her pistol along the trail of the laser, engulfing a solid half of Shadow Leni and launching a shockwave powerful enough to blast away all the other shadow-creatures and kick huge clouds of dust up. What remained of Shadow Leni was sucked into the beam itself in the few moments it existed, burning up until nothing remained.

She remained standing rock-solid for a few moments, before her entire body went limp and she fell to her knees, panting.

"That… was…" Lincoln started.

"Literally awesome!" Lori finished, before going into a coughing fit. "Ow my everything…"

Leni looked up. "You… You're okay!" She immediately sprung forwards and grabbed Lori in a huge hug.

"Ow owowowowowoooowww…!" Lori struggled to say. "Yeah, I'm alive, thanks to Luan."

Luan smiled. "Still need to do a bit more work to get you back to proper shape, but you'll definitely live."

"Oh my gosh, I was totes worried you were dead or something!" Leni continued, letting Lori go from her iron grip and allowing Luan to continue her healing magic.

"How the heck did you do that big laser thing?" Lincoln asked.

"I have no idea." Leni looked at her pistol, the barrel still glowing red-hot. "I just got really upset and wanted to stop that thing. It wouldn't stop saying how horrible of a person I was and that nobody loved me, but when Lori jumped in front of me I knew it was wrong."

"Hmm…" Lisa approached her, studying the gun. "Maybe, rather than being tied to your genetic code, it's tied to your emotions."

"Like… it's powered by my feelings?"

"A crude but not inaccurate statement, yes." Lisa handed the pistol back to Leni.

"That is totes cool." Leni smiled proudly at her pistol. "So, can we check out the mall?"

"I…" Lori started, but sighed. "Sure, fine, but be careful."

Leni beamed, then continued on, with the others in tow. Lincoln looked up above the entrance - a great big hole had been carved into the front sign, still smoking from the source.

The mall doors, giant iron slabs rather than glass, grinded open with a loud and unpleasant screech.

"Ah, jeez, it sounds like Luna messing up a riff!" Lynn shouted.

"Oi!"

Finally it stopped, and, checking their ears, the ten of them stepped inside. The interior was just as twisted as the outside, but still just recognisable. All the shop fronts were closed, however, which made Leni groan in defeat.

"Dang it, I was really hoping something would be open."

"I'm not too surprised, really." Lincoln shrugged.

Lori, leading the way after Leni had taken a few steps back, stopped, and held her glaive out to stop anyone else from passing her. "We've got company."

Lincoln peered over her shoulder. Shuffling around in front of them was another shadowy creature, this one much shorter and lacking any discernible facial features, as well as being much more solid. It turned to the team, and shuffled forwards.

Lori readied her glaive. "Get ready for anything, guys."

"Wait."

Lincoln turned his head, and saw Lucy step forwards, approaching the shadow.

"Lucy, what are you doing?!" Lori yelled.

Lucy stopped near the shadow, standing at the same height as it. She placed a hand on its top.

"Lucy…?"

Lucy smiled, ever-so-slightly, then turned back to the team. "We've found mine."

Lincoln blinked. "What?"

"Why isn't it attacking us? Or doing anything but just standing there?" Lana asked.

"Unlike you guys, I've embraced my inner darkness and all my flaws, and have in some way turned them into strengths." Lucy replied.

"Wait, what would those 'flaws' be?" Lincoln questioned. "Cuz it's not really obvious and I'm sure most of us would like to know."

"That's exactly it." Lucy turned back to the shadow. "I am often forgotten and looked over, and thought to be weird. For years, I struggled with accepting that. Now, while I still have those feelings and occasionally yearn for the opposite," Dark Lucy bristled a little, a ridge of porcupine-like spines waving across its back. "I have learnt to accept that I will always be unusual, and that sometimes being looked over is a strength all to itself."

"That…" Lincoln started. "Kinda makes sense."

"Explains why this thing isn't hostile either." Lori mused.

"It should, in fact, be a useful ally." Lucy added.

Lola sighed. "Oh thank goodness, we're avoiding another frustrating fight."

"Don't get too comfortable." Lincoln said. "We still have… _two three four… ten minus…_ six more to deal with."

"Ugh. Can't we just go home already?"

"Dude, that'd be great, but y'know they'd just throw them in our path anyway." Luna shrugged. "It's kind of a bummer."

"Hey, we've managed to get through four of them with only one of us nearly dying," Lincoln started, "so I reckon we're doing a lot-"

"Don't jinx it, Linc." Lynn shoved her hand in front of Lincoln's face.

"Well, if we wanna get home, we should get there ASAP." Lori interjected. "There's another exit on the other side of the mall, we should be able to get out through there."

"Lead on." Lincoln gestured.

The team continued their trek. More and more stores passed them, all corrupted versions of their normal ones, all locked and bolted shut. The food court was no exception, with the only difference being the noises that were around the area.

Lori stopped instinctively. "Wait."

Lincoln paused to listen. "I can hear-"

"Shh…" Lori held still for a moment. "I can hear something big eating something."

"I was gonna say that." Lincoln frowned.

"What is it?" Lana asked.

"Knowing our luck it'll be _your_ evil thingy." Lola replied.

"Come on, dude, I'm not _that_ gross." Lana snapped back.

"Uh, yeah you are."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Lincoln heard a chittering noise, just as the eating stopped. "Uh, twins?"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

In the corner of his vision, he saw something pink move from behind one pillar to another closer one. "Lana, Lola, shh."

"Am not!" Lana screamed.

"Are too!" Lola yelled back at equal volume.

He saw something large appear from behind one of the food counters, pull itself over it, and slowly begin to head towards them. "Lana! Lola!"

"What!" Both of them turned to him, then looked past him. Lola screamed and dived for cover, while Lana braced herself for impact.

Lincoln turned back to the lumbering thing, and just as well he did, as he was able to get out of the way as it barreled towards him at incredible speed, a wake of broken tables and twisted chairs behind it. It rushed past him and hit its head on the side of the escalator behind him, taking Lana with it. She managed to get free of its grasp and roll away, and was about to strike when she froze.

The large beast, superficially, resembled Lana in the barest of senses, having unkempt blonde hair with a red hat, and a torn set of overalls worn over a blue sleeveless shirt. The similarities ended there, though, as the beast was easily five times her size, its mouth full of sharp teeth, with a wing and a canine front arm as its arms, and a frog and a cat leg, and a large reptilian tail.

Before either it or Lana could do anything, Lincoln heard a shrill noise on the other side of the room. Bounding from behind one of the pillars was a tall, spindly creature which looked eerily similar to Lola and twice his height. Poking out from underneath its tattered dress was four spider-like legs, them and its arms ending in sharp spikes. In place of its mouth it just had sharp teeth that stretched all the way to its ears in a wicked grin. Its tiara, something Lincoln only now noticed that normal Lola was missing, was massive and jagged. It was also fast, and it managed to dodge out of the way of Lori's glaive, jabbing its spiny appendage towards her. It skipped off her armour, but she took a wary step back, glaive held out to keep it at bay.

"I am _not_ getting stabbed through the chest again!"

"Lori!"

Lori saw a massive shape tearing its way towards her, and she ducked to avoid a flying chair and backstepped just far enough to get out of its way. Monster Lana, however, turned to face her and stuck its canine arm out behind it, massive spiked claws jutting out from its hand, digging into the aged tiles and slowing it down. Spider Lola spun over its back and jabbed its legs towards her, but was blasted aside by Luna as another guitar riff played. This gave Lori just enough time to disengage, and for Lynn to leap past her and slam her mace into Monster Lana's face. It didn't do much at all, but Lynn kept at it, her natural speed and agility keeping her from being crushed.

Lola, until now quiet, opened fire with her own rifle, pink bolts of light spraying Monster Lana. Again, it did very little, in fact it only seemed to irritate it more, its neck swelling up as some kind of liquid visibly swirled underneath it.

Lola froze, then dived the moment it opened its mouth, a stream of foul-smelling and unsettlingly chunky fluid burst from it. It struck the tile and began to melt it. Lola scrambled back to her feet, and hid herself behind an upturned table.

Meanwhile, Lana had reoriented herself, and just in time, as Spider Lola dropped from absolutely nowhere and nearly pierced her with its limbs. Lana, instinctively, kicked one its legs, then leveled her club and brought it down on its head. Or, would have, if an invisible field hadn't deflected it into the tile, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Dang it!"

Spider Lola lashed out again with a horrible screech, its needle arm just grazing her and one of its legs, aimed for her chest, was barely turned aside by a wall of golden light that pushed her just out of its range. In the corner of her eye she saw another pink shape about her size, and moved up to it, watching Lucy attempt to slow down the pink creature alongside Dark Lucy, the former by blocking its path and the latter coiling around its legs.

"What the heck are we supposed to do about these?"

"You're asking _me?_ " Lola snapped back. "I have, like, no idea!"

The two of them dived to the side, Lana dodging another bounding leap from the spindly pink creature as it broke free from Dark Lucy, and Lola dodging another spray of acrid fluid from the hulking monster. The liquid hit the pink creature, causing it to recoil and attempt to wipe the gunk off. The hulking monster barked something angrily, to which the pink one, unaffected by the fluid but still annoyed by it, trilled back loudly.

Lola picked herself up, helping Lana stand. "Why are they arguing?"

"Because I guess yours is a prissy little twerp, kinda like you."

"Hey! Just because I don't like getting dirty doesn't mean I'm prissy-" Lola froze. "Wait."

"Huh?"

Lola placed a finger on Lana's lips. "Shh. That's it. Arguing."

"... You've lost me."

The two creatures ceased their bickering for just a moment, turning to the twins and diving towards them. Lana grabbed Lola's arm and lobbed her aside, spinning around and grabbing her club in the same turn, and still spinning she smashed it into Monster Lana's head and knocked it to the side. Pushed by the sheer impact it kept going and skidded on the ground between the twins and into a pillar, kicking up a cloud of concrete dust and causing the whole mall to shudder. Rather than leap at her in some act of vengeance, Spider Lola instead skittered up to Monster Lana and began trilling angrily.

Lana leapt back to help Lola up. "You were saying?"

"I mean, look at them. They're bickering instead of working together."

"So… if we work together, we should easily overpower them?"

"If you're gonna do anything, you might want to do it now!" Lynn yelled, running up and knocking the distracted Spider Lola off its legs before being smacked aside herself by Monster Lana and into a nearby pillar with a horrible crack.

"Lynn!" The twins yelled.

"I'm okay…!" Lynn replied weakly. "The pillar broke before I did…"

Lana sighed with relief, then readied herself. "Lola, I need you to distract the big one for me. Everyone else, keep the small one busy!"

A round of affirmatives rang out, as the other eight began to converge on Spider Lola and kept it from joining the fray. Lola levelled her rifle on Monster Lana and fired a short burst to catch its attention, the pink bolts of light shattering harmlessly off its hide but doing exactly what she wanted it to. With a deafening roar it began a charge, and just as it picked up enough speed to splatter her with its weight alone she dived to the side. As it ran straight into a iron-wrought shop window, Lana dashed up and swung her club, hitting it in the back with a horrible crack. It roared in pain and pushed itself out of the hole it created, staggering on its hind legs and using its feathered arm in a vague attempt to keep itself upright. With a yell, Lana raised her club high and slammed it straight down on its head with a crunch that turned her stomach. Rather than blood and viscera, though, only inky black slime poured out of its split skull, it and Monster Lana's body turning into black vapour that faded away almost immediately.

Lola dashed up. "Dang, that was nasty."

Lana chuckled. "Yeah, it was. Eugh. Not my kinda mess."

"Guys, look out!" Lincoln yelled, before an ear-shatteringly loud and piercing noise rang out from the melee he was caught in. With it, a shockwave that sent everyone near Spider Lola flying and causing the twins to stumble.

"The hell was that?!" Lori shouted.

"I think we pissed it off!" Luna yelled back, already on her feet.

At the epicenter of the blast, Spider Lola stood, breathing hard through its fanged maw, no longer a mockery of a smile but an expression of rage. Its eyes radiated hot pink energy, its limbs wreathed in equally pink fire. It let out another, albeit harmless, screech, then it seemed to blink out of existence only to appear right in front of Lana. Only battle-heightened reflexes kept her from being impaled by one if its arms, and bringing the club up to block stopped the other five limbs jabbing at her.

Lola fired another burst as Spider Lola, but it seemed to anticipate it, glaring down at her before blinking out and back in again, in front of Lola, and thrusting its arm into her leg. Lola screamed in pain as it pulled its limb out and struck her right arm, a pink flame coursing through it and cutting complete control from it. The pain and loss of control forced her to drop her rifle, and she looked up through a tear-soaked haze to see its limp rear back and thrust at her head…

Only to be turned aside by a golden light.

"I got you!" Luan yelled, staff raised, light flowing from one end of it.

Lola blinked. Spider Lola's eyes widened, and it looked at its arm, confused for a brief moment. Lincoln and Lucy took the chance to stand between them, allowing Luan precious moments to close and start patching Lola up. Her leg knitted up fine, but her arm was still weak.

Lana, meanwhile, dashed up and slammed her club into Spider Lola. Or would have, if it didn't blink out of range, and then back to strike her. Lana blocked it successfully, but only just.

"We need to pin it down!" Lisa shouted.

"Dogpile!" Lynn yelled, leaping onto Spider Lola and grabbing one of its arms, just as it was rearing back to strike at Lana. Lucy ran up and swung her mace to sweep its legs, as Lincoln moved to do the same and Dark Lucy wrapped itself around its other two legs. As Lana dropped her club and grappled its other arm just as it struck at her, it seemed to shudder violently, a field of pink smoke around it. It was trying to blink away, but its loss of stability and being anchored by two people and a shadow creature stopped it.

Lola winced in pain, grabbing her rifle with her left hand. She struggled to pull it level with the creature, it desperately trying to break free, her own right arm desperately trying to work even as Luan flooded it with golden light.

Luna held the foregrip for her, looking down the length of the firearm to get it straight. "I got ya, dude! Let 'er rip!"

Lola spared only a glance at Luna, before glaring at the creature. "Hey you!"

Spider Lola paused, looking back down at Lola.

"Go crawl in a hole and die!" Lola squeezed the trigger, a hail of pink bolts streaming out. The first one struck one of its eyes, a gush of black inky goo bursting out, and while the next few missed the rest struck it all over. Moments later it turned black and evaporated rapidly, the last few of the bolts going through it as if it was naught but air.

Lana sighed. "Man that was tiring."

"You're telling me." Lola replied, pulling herself back up. Her arm was starting to heal properly now.

Lincoln heard a crack, just above him. Something hit his head, small enough not to kill him but large enough to smart. "Agh, jeez, what was…?"

He glanced down. A small piece of concrete had hit him. He looked up, a large crack forming in the upper floor.

"Uh, guys…?"

"Huh?" Lori turned to him, then looked above him. Her eyes widened. "Oh crap, guys, we gotta move."

"Why?" Leni tilted her head. Lori frowned, and pointed to the crack. Leni followed her gesture. "Oh."

"Let's go!" Lynn shouted, already moving. The rest followed quickly, the cracks growing larger and spreading through the mall. As they reached the second entrance, surprisingly more normal-looking glass than the iron gates they had entered through, Lynn barged through the glass shoulder-first, followed by Lori once she made sure it was clear of shards, and then the others. Just as Lincoln, last out and making sure the still-wounded Lola got out before him, stepped out, the whole structure collapsed. A huge cloud of dust rushed out of the wreckage, Lincoln screwing his eyes shut and raising his shield to protect himself.

Moments later, Lincoln opened his eyes, the dust already settling. He heard coughing behind him, and he gathered back up with the rest.

Lori dusted herself off. "Ugh, I could kill for a bath." She glanced up at Lincoln, then did a double take. "I take that back, you look like you need one more."

Lincoln blinked, and looked at his legs, unprotected from the dust. They were absolutely caked in dust, and running his hand through his hair he could tell that his hair was just as dusty too. "Dang it."

Lori smiled and started dusting his head. "Yeah, ceramic beige doesn't suit your complexion."

Lincoln gently swatted her hand aside and began dusting himself off, smiling nonetheless. Leni coughed violently to clear the dirt. "Ew, tastes like construction site." She looked towards the mall, and frowned. "Aww… I wanted to get some new clothes."

"I doubt they'd have any in your size… or body shape." Lucy replied, vigorously getting as much non-black off her as she could. Dark Lucy shook itself like a dog to get the dust off itself.

"So, uh, which way was home again?" Luna asked, looking across the horizon.

"I think it's straight ahead." Luan replied, taking her hand off Lola. "How's the arm?"

Lola moved her arm around. "A bit stiff and weak, but I can use it."

"We should keep moving." Lisa murmured. "I don't know about any of you but I would prefer to get back to reality as soon as possible."

"Okay, but at some point I'd like to stop for a moment so I can rest my legs." Lincoln replied, beginning his march. "All this running around is exhausting."

"It's not that bad." Lynn shrugged, already outpacing him and spinning on her heels to face the others. "You probably need the exercise."

"Well, yeah, maybe, but I'd also not like to be in mortal peril for more than eight seconds."

"Also we don't know if any exercise or weariness will translate back to reality, assuming of course we return to it in the first place." Lisa added.

"Man, that'd suck if it didn't, I'm kinda digging-" Lynn paused, her ankle caught on something. She staggered, just managing to get back on her feet, and looked at what she caught herself on. A small metal railing, lining a remarkably healthy patch of grass, in the centre of which some worn-down white lines of paint rested, resembling a soccer field but larger and less precisely measured.

"Gee, I wonder which boss arena this is?" Lincoln said with immense sarcasm.

Lynn didn't reply. Instead, her gaze leveled to a strange figure standing on the other side of the court. It looked twisted and broken, like a shattered corpse that was propped up somehow. As it limped closer that description became even more fitting. The figure was a disheveled and bloodied girl mirroring Lynn, clad in a tattered soccer uniform similar to the one she normally wore. One of its arms was bent and broken with a bone shard jabbing through its pallid skin, the other dragging a dented baseball bat behind it. In a similar vein, one of its legs was twisted into horrible shape, and while the other wasn't, it and other parts of its body had large chunks torn out of it, exposing a reddened skeleton to the dusty air. Capping it off, its head was missing one of its eyes and the flesh was torn off the other cheek.

It grinned at her, its shattered body doing nothing to stop it moving. "Well, about time you showed up."

Lynn winced, its voice strained and distorted but uncomfortably familiar.

"I was beginning to think you died back there."

"Heh, well, it's gonna take more than a bunch of freaky mutants to kill me." Lynn smirked.

"Is that so?" In a flash, Broken Lynn sprinted up to her, faster than Lynn even thought it could move, and she barely got out of the way of the bat as it hit the ground in a spray of dirt clods.

"How the hell-?!"

Broken Lynn's eye widened with manic glee. "Hah! I see your reflexes are still as sharp as ever!" It spared a quick glance at the crowd and effortlessly sidestepped a burst of force launched by Luna. "Not as quick as mine, though."

"So what's your game plan?" Lynn asked, holding her maul ready to block any incoming attack. "Belittle me until I give up?"

"Oh, not at all." Without even looking it avoided another attack, a lance of thermal energy from Lisa's pistol. "See, I know you're good. But do they?"

Lynn spared a glance to her sisters and brother, Lucy and Lincoln beginning to move up to her. She looked back at her foe, frowning. "Of course they do."

"Uh huh, keep telling yourself that." It dashed forwards, shoving Lincoln aside as it reached out with its broken arm to grab her. Lynn backstepped and lashed out, her maul hitting its arm and causing a shockwave of red lighting to course through its body as the limb flew right off at the torn skin.

Much to her horror, though, the lightning did nothing to slow it down. If anything, it seemed to make it faster, a pinprick of light now in its empty eye socket and a vaguely limb-shaped mass of electricity forming from its bloody stump. It grabbed her with said arm and effortlessly threw her to the other side of the court.

Lynn, used to such knocks, pulled herself up and spat the dirt out of her mouth. Broken Lynn was already right up on her, but wasn't attacking.

"Lemme make this quick. You wanna prove you're strong?" She held out its lightning hand to her. "Join me."

"W-what?!"

"You're not powerful enough to defeat me on your own, you and I both know this, but I cannot leave this area. But with _my_ power, in _your_ body, we will both be strong enough to defeat anyone and we will be able to go anywhere we want. And, I'll even let you be the one in control, like your sister is with hers."

Lynn paused.

"If you wanna get back to your reality, no problems at all, all you need to do is grab my hand."

Lynn glanced behind Broken Lynn. Lincoln was storming up to them, shield forward and sword back.

"And who's to say you won't be able to do whatever you wanted to your _family_? Nobody could stop you, _nothing_ could stop you."

Lynn frowned. "You… really think I'd believe your bull?"

"I don't think it." It grinned, the same wide-eyed manic glee as before. " _I know it._ "

"Lynn!" Lincoln shouted.

Broken Lynn groaned. "And of course this dipshit has to come in and ruin everything." Without even looking, it spun its torso, and only its torso, so fast the bat struck Lincoln's shield hard enough to send it flying, him sprawling with it. Blood leaked from both its neck and abdomen, the drops that hit the ground turning into black smoke.

"Linc!" Lynn shouted, then snarled at Broken Lynn. "You're gonna pay for that!"

"Oh, please." It scoffed. "If you love him so much why don't you just-"

Lynn shrieked and swung as hard as she could, her maul striking Broken Lynn square in the side. With a shocked look it found itself flying right up to the metal railing. Lynn sprinted up, barely even noticing that Broken Lynn was already on its feet, its pinprick now a full blown ball of crimson energy, lightning wrapping its body entirely. She kicked, hard, barely staggering it but its arm grazed over the boundary. Where it did, though, it instantly vaporised into black smoke. The moment of shock was just enough time for Lynn to send her maul crashing down on its head, shattering and evaporating half of it and knocking Broken Lynn to the ground. Its lightning hand crossed the border and stopped working, the lightning drawn out of its body and crackling across the invisible barrier keeping it at bay.

"Wait, stop!" Broken Lynn strained, bringing itself back onto its feet. "Do you _want_ to remain a weakling for the rest of your-?"

Lynn lunged forwards and shoved Broken Lynn into the barrier, holding it against it. It shrieked out a distorted cry of pain, its body slowly breaking apart. "Shut up!"

"Do you really want to die in this miserable dustscape with these pathetic-?!" It screamed, its voice even more distorted than before.

" _Shut up!_ " Lynn shouted back. "I'd rather die than abandon these guys!"

"You… you weak... dumbass…!" Before it could say any more, it broke apart, dissolving into black mist. With nothing holding her upright, Lynn stumbled forwards and landed on her hands, the last wisps of Broken Lynn drifting through her fingers.

Lincoln, having just recovered, rushed up to her. "Lynn! Jeez, you okay?"

"I'm fine." She replied, though lacking her usual gusto and enthusiasm.

"You sure?" Lincoln started to help Lynn onto her feet, but was swatted away.

"I said I'm fine." Lynn hissed back. "I can get up myself."

"I… y'know, that's fair, I've seen you take worse hits and walk them off."

Lynn grunted as she brought herself back up on her feet. "Yeah…" She turned to face Linc, and looked him over. "You got hit pretty hard yourself, you good?"

"Eh, nothing I can't deal with." Lincoln stretched his shoulder, wincing a little. "Thanks for asking, though."

"So, who's left?" Lucy asked, walking up to both of them, their sisters following her up.

"Well, we had Lori, Luan, Leni, you, the twins, and Lynn, so that should leave us with Lisa, Luna and me."

Lisa mused for a moment. "I have to wonder, what would the distorted version of myself be capable of? I hope nothing close to my own potential, as if that were the case then we may all be in grave danger."

"Well, if Linc's is as pathetic as he is-" Lynn started.

"Hey, rude!" Lincoln frowned.

"- then we should only have to worry about the other two."

"Don't underestimate any of them, Lynn." Lori crossed her arms. "Doing that will _literally_ get you killed."

"Relax, I was kidding."

"Were you?" Lori raised an eyebrow. "Were you _really_?"

"... Can I skip the question?"

"Hey, guys, can we go home already?" Leni sighed. "My feet are getting sore even in these shoes."

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Lori patted her shoulder. She then turned to the group. "Alright, Louds, let's keep moving."

Following Lori's lead, the team kept up their arduous journey. On the horizon's edge duststorms gathered, growing nearer as they closed on their home.

However, the moment they reached what looked at least slightly like the furthest end of their home street, another structure blocked their path. Resting slightly askew was a large stage, tattered and worn, a ring of rusty scaffolding holding up some equally dilapidated multi-coloured lights that, despite flickering or being broken, kept the stage centre brightly lit. At the back of the stage, a bunch of strangely undamaged amps stood, partially covered by a purple tarp.

Lucy, and her shadowed counterpart, stepped forwards first, watching their feet carefully. "I think this next one is obvious."

"... Lisa's?" Leni tilted her head. "I thought she didn't like being on stage."

"It's Luna's." Lola replied, deadpan.

"Oh, that makes more sense."

Luna stepped forwards herself, cautious. "I'm getting a bad vibe from this, dudes-"

 _Crunch_

Luna looked down. She had stepped on something made of glass, the thick soles of her armoured boots stopping it from cutting up her foot but not from making a loud noise.

Something stirred from the stage. At first, the tarp merely shifted, but when four insect-like legs burst out and impaled themselves onto the stage Luna knew it wasn't just the wind. The amps began to move, curling around a large, shapeless fleshy mass. Said mass was covered in bloodshot blue eyes, fanged maws and clumps of dark brunette hair, its diameter now ringed with the amps as they embedded into it.

All of its eyes locked onto Luna.

"Dang it." Luna murmured.

It let out a horrific and ear-piercingly loud noise, a pressure wave rushing out from it and kicking up all the detritus around them. All the Louds raised their arms or shields to stop shards of glass or splinters of wood from hitting their face.

The first to act was Luna. Levelling her underslung arm cannon, she squeezed the trigger and launched her own sonic wave in reply. It let out another wave from one of its amps, though, the two blasts hitting each other and with a thunderous clap canceling each other out.

"Oh come on!" Luna yelled. She fired another wave, which was cancelled in exactly the same way. And again. And again. "Son of a-!"

All of its mouths opened up and let out a piercing cry. While the other Louds covered their ears from the noise, Luna felt a crushing wave of anxiety and panic wash over her at the same time, all the little voices that had been trying to shut her down over the years now amplified into a deafening barrage.

Her legs felt weak, one of them buckling out from under her. She didn't have enough strength to lift herself up, let alone raise her cannon back up, the dread crushing her very will to move.

A pair of remarkably strong arms helped her back on her feet. "I got you."

"Th… thanks, Leni." She looked up to see the rest of her siblings closing in on the creature, trying to stop it from getting anywhere. It failed, as it simply crouched and launched a sonic wave powerful enough to send the shorter kids flying and knocking the taller or further away ones off their feet. Luna staggered as the wave hit her, only on her feet because Leni was rock-solid on hers.

"How the heck are we supposed to beat this one?" Lincoln yelled. "We can't get close, and it's blocking your attacks and it's immune to ours."

Luna thought for a second, then sighed. "I don't think we can do it, dude."

Lincoln frowned. "No, there has to be some way. Maybe a weak spot you can exploit, or some kind of environmental effect."

"I…" Luna paused. Her eyes wandered to the stage, and to the railing holding the lights in place, then to the unprotected top of the creature as it fought off her sisters. She let out a small gasp. "I got a crazy idea."

"What is it?" Leni asked.

"No time to explain, I need you guys to draw it onto the stage."

"Got it." Lincoln nodded, then dashed off. While impossible for Luna to hear over the constant deafening noise, she saw him running around to his sisters, telling them what to do.

"Leni, I need you to help me get to the stage and up the railing."

Leni nodded, scooping Luna up bridal-style and running with all her might. The gaze of the hulking creature followed Luna, but somehow Leni was able to outpace the pressure waves it launched to stop her.

Within moments the pair had reached the stage, the massive creature already one limb up on it thanks to their siblings. Leni pushed Luna up onto the railing with a grunt, then pulled out her pistol. She went to say something, but a blast of sound pushed into the railing, nearly shaking Luna off it.

"Leni!" Luna yelled.

"I'm okay…!" Leni grunted, getting back onto her feet slowly. "Just go!"

Luna nodded, then after taking a breath to strengthen herself, began to climb up. Clearly the creature didn't like that, as it began to thrash around violently, its limbs striking the scaffolding and nearly throwing Luna off them. One of the lights, a lot larger than Luna first thought, snapped off however, and fell right onto one of its insect-like limbs, snapping it clean off. It let out a shriek, both from its amps and mouths, and Luna felt the same wave of anxiety threatening to break her already weak grip.

"Lisa, Leni, Lola, shoot the lights!" Lori commanded, gesturing to the scaffolding. The three of them responded, Lisa's aim unerring and melting a stage light off its hinges with each hit, Lola a wild flurry of shots that eventually broke the ones she was aiming att off, and Leni only managing to knock one down because of her poor aim and her trying not to hit Luna. While most of them fell dangerously close to one of their siblings, who quickly moved out of the way for later ones, or bounced harmlessly off the armoured amps ringing the creature, a few found their ways home, breaking all but one of the limbs apart or landing square in one of its mouths or eyes in sprays of black smoky ichor-gas. It let out another shriek, however with this one Luna didn't even feel a wave of anxiety.

She continued her climb, only barely making it to the top. All of the creature's eyes looked up at her, and its one remaining limb tried desperately to move it out of the way. It let out yet another anxiety-screech and wave after wave of sonic blasts, and as the scaffolding broke apart Luna simply let herself fall. Gun first.

With an angry roar to rival the creature itself, she held down the trigger and unleashed a constant barrage of soundwaves right into the exposed head. It had pulped a solid half of it into black disintegrating ichor when she finally hit it and felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, and then again when the creature's bulk broke apart and she hit the stage floor on the same shoulder.

"Ow…" Luna moaned, clutching her hurt shoulder as she lay on the ground. Already, Luan was on her, hands on her shoulder filling it with gold light. "Thanks, sis…"

"That was a risky move, Luna." Luan replied. "How did you even know it'd work?"

"I… don't think I really _did_." Luna shrugged, partly to make sure her shoulder was working right. "But I thought that, if it's gonna stop any hits from above, I'd try hitting it from above."

"Well, you're lucky it worked. Guess you had a real _lightbulb_ moment, huh?"

Luna laughed sarcastically. "Anyway, help me up?"

"Oh, right, sure." Luan hooked an arm around Luna and got her on her feet, the latter still a little weak in the knees.

"We're not far from home, guys." Lori said, gesturing past the stage. "I think I can even see it."

"Finally." Lincoln sighed. "This stuff's getting tiring."

Without any further encouragement, the team kept their long march going, albeit slowly as Luna was still recovering. Much to Lincoln's surprise, nothing showed up as they finally reached what resembled their home.

If it could even be called that. While roughly the same shape, it was nearly twice the size and made of stone and metal, looking more like a cathedral rather than a house. The tree in the front yard was equally massive, but completely dead and rotted. Atop the chimney was one of those gyroscopic devices that had appeared in so many worlds, contained within it an intense orange light.

"You sure this is the right address?" Leni asked.

Lincoln glanced at the giant iron doors. Carved next to it in the surrounding stone were the letters MCCXVI. "Hey, uh, someone who knows Roman Numerals off by-"

"1216. This is the right place." Lisa replied almost instantly.

"Let's head inside, but be prepared for anything." Lori said. Slowly, she approached the doors, her siblings close behind. She gingerly pushed the door, to no effect. She pushed harder, the loud creaking sound almost certainly alerting whatever was inside that they were there, if they didn't know already.

Lincoln scanned what he expected to be the living room. The whole room, however, was barren, no furniture, carpeting or anything vaguely resembling the familiar living room, except the fireplace. Within the rough-hewn stone hollow was a raging fire, filling the entire building with an acrid smell and a smoky haze. He didn't want to know what was burning in there.

"Ugh, this place stinks." Lynn groaner, mirroring his thoughts.

"Keep your eyes peeled, guys." Lori murmured, stepping forwards with glaive at the ready. Lincoln moved to cover her left, and Lucy her right.

"So, where do we go?" Lana asked, voice low.

"Maybe Lisa's or Lincoln's room?" Luna replied.

"Maybe." Lori mused. "I saw a light coming from Lincoln's window, that might be something to check."

"Well, lead the way." Lincoln gestured.

Lori nodded, making her way cautiously to the stairs. While a lot taller than normal and made of stone rather than wood, each step was more or less the same size as normal.

Lincoln groaned. "This is gonna be murder on my legs."

Lynn was already making her way up. "Come on, guys!"

"Excuse me, Lynn, but some of us have limbs with limited reach, thus requiring more effort to reach the pinnacle of these stairs." Lisa replied, clearly annoyed.

"How about you scout ahead, see if it's literally worth climbing up this?" Lori added.

"No prob." Lynn gave her a quick salute and, with seemingly no effort, made her way to the top. She looked around, keeping herself low, then turned back to the others and gestured for them to get up there.

Lincoln started his climb. By the time he reached the top, though, he was exhausted, only used to climbing stairs half this height. "So… you find anything…?"

"Yep." Lynn nodded. "All the rooms up here, except you and Lisa's, are boarded shut, and there's this glowing crystal pedestal thingy in yours."

Lincoln peered down the hallway, the walls flanked by worn but still visible tapestries, which appeared to show him and his sisters in heroic poses. True to Lynn's word, there was a small stone pillar in the middle of what was his room, holding a faintly-glowing blue crystal. "Huh."

"Bet if you touch it something good's gonna happen. Ooh, you could get super-strength, or speed, or stamina-"

"Or a way home!" Leni beamed.

"Or it's a trap." Lori mused. "Or both."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Luna yelled, running towards the crystal. "Let's go!"

"Wait, Luna!" Lori shouted, already running to catch her. Lincoln, legs still burning from the climb, followed up.

Luna was just a little faster than both of them, though. This turned out to be good for Lincoln, as the moment Luna stepped in front of Lisa's doorway a mass of flesh and wires burst out and slammed into Luna, knocking her off her feet. Lori immediately shifted direction to help Luna up, while Lincoln kept up and slashed down on the tentacle with his sword, severing it with a spray of black goo and sparks, and a pained growl from the shadow of the room.

After a few moments, a figure stepped- no, floated out of the shadows, one that looked disturbingly identical to Lisa, including the uniform she was wearing in this world but pristine. However, what little warmth regular Lisa had behind her eyes was gone, an air of smug superiority and hyper-intelligence in its place.

"So glad to see you all here." It smiled, sending a chill down his spine. "Honestly, I never expected many of you to make it this far." It pulled up some kind of tablet and flicked through it. "Out of all of you, I only expected-"

Its head was engulfed in an orange blaze, Lisa having fired a shot from her pistol. "I don't have time for monologuing."

The smoke cleared. Lincoln had to bite back a gag, as half of its face was horribly burnt down to the bone and even further. Its other half, however, looked more annoyed than anything. "Ow."

"What the…?" Lisa sounded… worried.

"That _stung_." It continued, its face already healing from the wound.

"How… why…?"

"Don't act so mortified, Lisa. You know how to achieve bioregeneration easily, I am simply that technique perfected, amongst other aspects."

Lisa frowned, firing another shot, striking it in the chest to much the same effect. "You have no source of biomatter to draw from, how can you even achieve this?"

"Oh, I have a source." It smirked, lifting higher into the air as a set of organic claws, tentacles and talons flanked by mechanical devices and filled with wires unfurled from behind it, including a bloody stump from where Lincoln cut the tentacle off. As it hovered ominously above them, the room behind it lit up bright, and Lincoln saw something truly horrific. A large, shapeless mound of flesh, clumps of blonde and brown hair jutting out, quivered in silent pain.

"What the literal fuck…?" Lori murmured. Leni just shrieked.

"I had ready access to ample biomatter, with minimal genetic recoding or processing required. And, so do you, Lisa, and I know you have the conviction-"

Another hail of heat blasts struck it, all aimed at the head. The being hit the floor with a dull thud. "I am not turning my siblings into my personal regeneration resource! That's unethical and just… no!"

The headless corpse coughed, then began floating upright. Already its head, and more surprisingly, its clothing, was healing back up, the blob shuddering more as a strange blue light glowed from within it. "Oh, don't talk about ethics to us, we know we don't follow them if it suits us."

"Why aren't you dead?!" Lisa yelled. "I destroyed your brain, you shouldn't have your memories or anything of the sort!"

"I have a backup." It smirked. Lisa levelled her pistol for a fourth time, but a wired tendril shot out and pinned her hand to the ground. "I'd like you not to interrupt me this time." Lincoln snapped out of his horror and slashed the outstretched tentacle, surprised that it managed to actually cut it like the last one. The being winced and let out a grunt of pain, and it shot out a clawed limb and knocked him off his feet. "And you can stop being a nuisance!"

As its claw withdrew, Lynn grabbed onto it, riding it into the air and slamming her maul into its face. It spiralled into the floor as Lynn landed on her back and rolled onto her feet. Lucy and Lana descended on the being, striking hard at the creature.

Lori and Lincoln helped Lincoln back onto his feet. "You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Siblings, I have an idea!" Lisa yelled. "We need to shut down its regeneration capacity!"

"Got it." Luna saluted. "Leni, Lola, give me a hand!"

"Okay, but if I get nightmares it's your fault." Lola mumbled, dashing off with Leni and Luna into the room. Lucy pointed to the organic blob, and Dark Lucy snaked off to follow them.

"Lynn, Lucy, Lana, keep it pinned!" Lori ordered. "Luan, keep everyone patched up and protected!"

"Already on it!" Luan raised her staff, a golden field of light passing over the melee fighters that stopped the thrashing being from doing anything.

"Lisa, keep an eye on it and Lincoln."

"Wait, why Lincoln?" Lisa asked, firing another shot into the creature as it knocked Lana aside.

"He and I are going to that crystal. If we disappear and you don't, get everyone else to go there too."

"Understood." Lisa nodded.

"Lincoln, you ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Lincoln braced himself to sprint.

"Let's go!" Lori kicked off the ground. Lincoln kept close behind, adrenaline pushing him through his exhaustion.

"No you don't!" The being yelled as a scythe-limbed arm shot out towards it. Lori spun on her heel and carved a crimson arc through it, severing it off before it could land home. "Agh, come on!"

"How are we even able to do that?" Lincoln asked as Lori kept up her sprint.

"Maybe because it's made of all of us or something?" Lori replied. "Doesn't matter, we're nearly there."

Lincoln passed through the doorway threshold first, Lori just behind him. The two of them paused, scanning the area. Sitting in front of the pedestal, a shadow-covered figure rested. As it got up, Lincoln recognised the distinctive cowlick of his, and in the same white colour once it stepped into the light too. In fact, it looked half like him.

Literally. Its entire right side looked just like he did, armour and all, with an expression of confidence matched with heavy bags under its eyes. Its left side, in stark contrast, was an amorphous and constantly-shifting mass of flesh, armour and orange cloth, the only consistent part the roughly humanoid shape. As was typical of all the random blobs of flesh in the creatures they encountered, clumps of hair, bloodshot eyes and crooked maws dotted it, but unlike the others they disappeared and reappeared erratically.

"So…" it spoke, the many mouths quietly echoing its main one. "You finally made it."

"So you're the one doing this?" Lori asked, glaive readied.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Physically I am the same as all those other constructs you fought, but what little of my mind I had of my own is mixed with the astronomically large mind of the creator of these worlds, so I am functionally the orchestrator of these events."

"Okay, what's all this about, then?" Lincoln readied his shield. "Why are you even doing this?"

It smirked. "I'd love to answer that, but you're not quite done here." It snapped its fingers, somehow making the sound despite being in an armoured glove. Without any warning outside of a blip of blue light, Lori found herself flung across the room, a heavy warhammer having hit her square in the side. Lincoln snapped his head to look, and saw an exact duplicate of Titan Lori stride out of the shadows, and in the corner of his eyes all the same creatures they had fought blinked into existence near his sisters.

"Oh come on, dude, that's not fair!"

"It wouldn't be a challenge if it was entirely fair!" It yelled, lunging forwards with a sword that materialised in its hand as it did so. Lincoln blocked it and the other eight swings in the following second, and thrust his own blade forwards in retaliation. It embedded deep in its body, and with a shocked look it disintegrated into black smoke.

Rather than disappearing, the smoke rushed past him and reformed almost instantly into the same being. "What the-?"

"You gotta be smarter than that, Lincoln Loud." It smiled coyly, unleashing another hail of strikes. Lincoln only managed to block a few, the rest striking armour or cutting him. He struck again, following the smoke to where it reformed and tanked the flurry of strikes again. "Hm, smart kid."

Lincoln saw Lori pushing back Titan Lori, staggering and threatening to knock it off its feet. With a roar he rushed forwards and shoved his duplicate into its pathway, just as Titan Lori slipped and crashed down onto the floor, crushing it into smoke.

The smoke reformed again, with another flurry of attacks, but the expression of amusement was now one of frustration. "Okay, _that_ one stung a little."

Lori plunged her glaive deep into Titan Lori's conjoined heads, and watched the smoke disappear, and much to her horror and Lincoln's ire reform again. Lori sidestepped the followup swing, bumping into Lincoln's shoulder. "We can't kill these ones!"

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"How are we gonna…" Lori gasped. "The crystal!"

Lincoln's eyes widened. Of course. How could he forget? With a quick turn he made a break for the crystal.

"You're not getting it that easily!" His duplicate yelled, its amorphous part stretching out and catching his arm, just as he was just a foot out of reach. Many, many pairs of sharp teeth bit down just above his elbow, the sharp pain doing nothing to dull the feeling of flesh tearing apart.

He nearly collapsed just from the pain alone, but he grit his teeth and pushed forwards, one push away from touching the crystal.

"Wait, no, what are you-?!" It shouted, doubling down on its attack, as much of it anchored onto the ground as possible. "You can't do this!"

Lincoln made one last push. Incredible pain and a sickening crunch followed, but as he nearly passed out, his hand struck the crystal, pushing it out of its holder.

"Nooooo!" His duplicate yelled, before it stopped abruptly.

Lincoln opened his eyes. The pain somehow died down to a dull throb much faster than he expected. Around him, everything had gone greyscale, and appeared frozen. Lori was stuck with an expression of horror mixed with a desperate hope. Titan Lori's hammer was inches away from hitting her head. His own duplicate looked terrified, a jet of blood streaming out of its fanged arm, the blood already in the process of turning into white light.

Lincoln soon noticed that it wasn't what was bleeding. Off to the side, his shield was splintered, shards of metal scattered on the floor. How he didn't notice this was surprising. As he went to pick one of them up, he suddenly became aware of the lack of feeling in his shield arm. And, as he held the already healed stump up to look at, his lack of his shield arm in general.

That was his arm in there.

To his credit, he didn't freak out… that much.

Trying to stop himself from focusing on his arm, he decided to look around, see what conditions his sisters were in. From what he could tell, they were all alive, though whether they would remain that way he had no idea. He winced as he saw some of the injuries they had taken. All of them looked badly bruised and bloodied in some way, and a couple of them, mainly Lisa, Lana and Lynn, had just had a limb severed microseconds before being frozen.

Lincoln heard the sound of air behind him. He turned around, and saw that from the pedestal everything around him was turning into a fine dust that drifted into the black void that surrounded him.

"Well, look at you." A familiar voice said to him from behind. He turned around, and saw himself, wearing his typical orange polo. The only thing that was different was his hair, which was long enough to reach his heels. "I didn't expect you would actually manage to save them all."

Lincoln sighed, his hand instinctively touching where his other arm used to be. "So, what just happened?"

"You won." His duplicate smiled. "You and your sisters managed to get through this with… minimal… harm."

"Couple of questions. One, who are you? Two, what the hell was all this about?"

"You can call me… Astral Lincoln, and before you ask that clone you fought in World 0 was my, or rather my greater form's puppet, though I did let it loose near the end there, hence the blind panic to stop you."

"That… doesn't answer any of my questions."

"I can see your patience has worn thin. Rest assured, this was for a reason."

"Reason? What kind of reason would you have for any of this?!" Lincoln snapped back.

"A test of character." Astral Lincoln replied. "I wanted to see how well you all could make it through this challenge, to see how your characters would be affected by stresses beyond ordinary circumstances."

"So… you threw me and my sisters into a metaphorical hell just for kicks?"

"Not exactly." Astral shrugged.

"Then explain."

Astral sighed. "Have you… ever had an ant farm, Lincoln?"

Lincoln's eyes widened. "What?"

"Well, it's kind of like that. You contain a set of creatures in a small closed-off space, watch them adapt to their unusual surroundings, add in a few unusual elements, and see what happens. Only difference being is that humans are able to reason."

"You're sick."

"And humans aren't?" It smiled, unusually warmly. "If ants had a higher capacity for reason I'm sure they'd have a few choice words."

Lincoln sighed. "So, what was the point of this? To teach me a lesson on how to be a better person?"

"Oh, you already knew how to be, I just wanted to see if you could handle _being_ one in a situation like this. Amongst other reasons, the least but not insignificant of which is amusement."

"That's… disturbing-"

"Ant farm."

"I feel like you're getting really hung up on the ant farm analogy."

"Hey, it works for my case."

A brief pause followed. "So is this it?"

"It is." A bright light flooded the room, behind Lincoln. He turned around to see another light gate, as well as a red, normal-looking door. "You have a choice to make. You can either go straight through the gate, and return to your true world, or you can head through the door with me. There's something I want to show you, but I won't force you." As Lincoln went to speak, Astral cut in. "Yes, you can still return home once you've gone through the door."

"Actually, I was gonna ask if I'm gonna get my arm-"

Lincoln turned to face him, but he had gone.

"... Back." Lincoln sighed, and turned back to the doors. The fact that he could leave whenever he wanted certainly kept the pressure off him, and while he wanted to just be done with this whole thing, a strong part of him had a burning curiosity.

That part won out, and he approached the door, opening it with his one good hand.

The sight before him nearly floored him. Up to about fifty feet was his front yard, but after that the world crumbled apart into a vast, empty space, filled with vibrant nebulae and distant galaxies. Standing in the yard, Astral Lincoln watched the sky.

Lincoln walked up next to him. "Woah… what is this place?"

"This is my home." He smiled. "Well, more accurately, _that's_ my home." He pointed to another island, floating nearby, an exact copy of Lincoln's home drifting in the void. He could just make out some kind of blonde-haired kid and a white-haired kid walking out, but he couldn't quite see who they were. "But this is the realm in which I live, yes."

"Wow." Lincoln stepped forwards.

"And that's my greater form." He pointed outwards again. As he did so, an immense, a truly astronomically gigantic being floated through the void. It looked only remotely humanoid, a halo of blue stars following it and framing a long trail of red stardust. It appeared to hold a swirling galaxy in its hands, and it drifted over to a collection of similarly sized but extremely different beings.

"What's it doing?"

"Showing off a creation it's most proud of, hoping our friends like it."

"So, are these things, like… gods?"

"Honestly, I don't have all the answers. I may be a part of that one, but I don't know everything it knows. But maybe they are, at least to your world."

"Oh." Lincoln sighed.

Astral laughed. "Hey, don't worry about it too much. In fact, there's something else I wanted to show you, something you can relate to more."

"That's… awfully vague-"

"Lincoln?"

Lincoln froze. He turned around, and saw the last person he expected to be here. "Ronnie Anne? Is that- _Oh my God what happened to your eye?!_ "

"Huh?" Ronnie Anne, decked out in some kind of dieselpunk costume and with a shouldered rifle of some kind, reached up to her face, a bandanna or piece of torn cloth having slipped up her head and exposing what was clearly her eye socket covered up with skin. "Oh, shoot, that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Lemme guess, your eye got taken out or something near the end?"

Ronnie Anne chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "It, uh… it happened basically the moment I got into the city. Only healed up after I got to my room."

"Oof." Lincoln smiled. "Well, I'm… I'm happy to see you here."

"Me too, Lame-o." She smiled back, walking up and wrapping her arms around him. She held herself there for some time. "God, this has been a nightmare."

"I hope it's just that."

"It's not." Astral butted in.

"What?" Ronnie Anne asked. "Also who are you?"

"I ran the worlds for Lincoln and his siblings. Also, no, this isn't a dream, when you two return to your worlds you'll keep the damage you've taken."

"What?!" Ronnie Anne yelled. "Oh my God, what the hell am I gonna tell Mom?!"

"At least you can hide it with your hair, I can't explain losing _this_!"

"Relax." Astral replied. "You can-"

"Relax? _Relax?!_ Have you _tried_ to explain anything like this?!"

" **I was going to say,** " Astral snapped back, his voice echoing everywhere and with enough volume to stop Ronnie Anne's freakout. "Lincoln's sister Lisa should be able to help with that."

"Are… you sure she will?"

"She lost her entire right arm. If that's not a motivator for one of the most critical people in your entire world to attempt something like that, I don't know what is."

Lincoln went to reply, but just sighed instead. "We… should probably get going, shouldn't we?"

Ronnie Anne nodded. "Yeah. I need a goddamn nap."

"That makes two of us." With a groan of effort, all the running around and constantly dying finally catching up to him, he turned to the house, Ronnie Anne close behind. He paused just before he entered, then turned to Astral. "Oh, Astral?"

"Yes?"

"You better hope we never see you again, because if we do you're in big trouble."

Astral simply smiled. "Oh, don't worry, this'll be the last you'll see of me. Your daughter, however, can look forward to a visit in a couple of decades."

"My what?"

The doorway seemed to shift towards them and push him and Ronnie Anne into the black void, then close behind them.

"... I really hope this is all just some massive fever dream." Ronnie Anne murmured.

"You and me both."

The two of them turned to the gate, then to each other.

"So, we're gonna tell each other what crazy things happened to us?"

"Oh, for sure. And, if we wake up and none of us are scarred and/or only one of remembers this, then clearly this is a dream."

"Yeah…" Lincoln sighed. "So, together?"

Ronnie Anne smiled, holding his hand with hers. "You better not let go or you're a dead man."

"I'll try my best."

With a few weary steps, the two of them stepped into the white void once again. The last thing he felt was Ronnie Anne's hand slipping away from his.

The first thing Lincoln felt was something soft. He opened his eyes. He saw his ceiling. He felt his blanket, his soft and welcoming bed.

He would've gone to bed right then and there, but adrenaline kept him from blissful sleep. He had to check something.

He reached for his arm.

There was no left hand.

"Oh boy."

Almost immediately his phone began buzzing. With his good hand he reached to grab it. It was Ronnie Anne calling. He answered it, having a bit of trouble managing that. "Ronnie Anne?"

"Please for the love of God tell me you only have one arm."

"I… yeah, I do."

She said something in Spanish, too distant to hear the words but enough to hear the tone. "I'm glad it's not just me then."

"Yeah, it's at least something." Lincoln sighed. "Oh shoot, my sisters! Talk to you later, bye!"

"See ya, Linc-"

Lincoln hung up, then leapt out of bed and practically threw the door open. At the same time, all the siblings in the house did much the same. Only Lori and Leni were absent, as they had moved out a few years before, but a quick text from both of them let Lincoln know they were alive, at least.

"Lincy!" Lola cried out, throwing herself into his arms, her twin close behind. "Oh my gosh, you're okay!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm…" he felt his lack of hand again. "Okay."

"Better than some of us, at least." Lynn called out. Lincoln looked up and saw that most of her right leg was gone, and she was being held up by Lucy.

"Oh jeez, sorry Lynn-"

"Eh, it's cool." Lynn shrugged. "I can do Paralympic stuff now, plus I can get a sick robot leg or something. I'm not upset."

"She's lying." Lucy replied, a large gash across her face. "She spent a solid seven seconds freaking out when she woke."

"Dude. Uncool."

"Fortunately most of us got out with scars." Luna said. "Some of us, though…"

"I can't pet two dogs at once now!" Lana bawled. "Why, cruel hand of fate?!"

"I guess it really wanted to _reach_ out and _grab_ ya, huh?" Luan giggled.

"Dude!" Luna snapped back. "Is now _really_ the time?"

"I use comedy to help cope with crushing despair, Luna!" Luan yelled, then sighed. "But… yeah, not a good time."

"If it helps, Luan, I found it… kind of amusing, considering my case." Lincoln tried his best to keep Luan's spirits up.

"Siblings!" Lisa shouted. Lincoln could see she already had some kind of cybernetic replacement where her entire right arm used to be. "Fear not, for I have a solution. It's a little… risky, as I haven't performed this before, but my dark reflection did give me an idea."

"Oh no." Luna murmured.

"Relax, this one will be ethical, I think. I'll only use the unethical methods on myself."

"Not… giving me much hope here, dude."

"Relax, it's a simple bioregeneration protocol. Or alternatively cyberware, if you'd prefer, though good luck explaining that to our parents."

"Well, I'd certainly like my arm back. Oh, does this offer extend to friends too?"

"Yes, I can help fix up the Santiago-Casagrandes too, Lincoln."

"How did you-?"

"Well who _else_ would you be referring to?"

Lincoln went to reply, but paused. "That's fair."

"Oh, speaking of, where's Lily?"

"I'm here." A very young, drowsy voice said, Lily stepping into the hallway from Lisa's room. "What's everyone yelling ab-" Lily's eyes caught the scars and missing limbs, and she shrieked.

"Kids?!" Another voice, this time their father, called out. "Everything okay up there? I'm coming up to check on you!"

"Oh boy, here we go." Lincoln groaned.


End file.
